2021-2030 (Progress, Decline and Hope)
January 2nd-10th, 2021: Over the past 20 years, relationships between the Republic of India and the United States have been growing steadily closer and friendlier. Reaching a low point during the second term of President Clinton with nuclear sanctions, Indo-US relations began to turn around during the terms of Presidents Bush and Obama. Obama's three visits to India gave him a lasting popularity there which still endures.
President Gillibrand, pushed by influential Congressmen such as Ryan Kirkpatrick, made close relations with India one of the planks of her campaign. By the time of her re-election, bilateral trade had reached 300 billion USD a year, making India the United States' fourth largest trading partner (after China, Canada, and Mexico). In January of her second term, she went on a state visit to India which, not coincidentally, coincided with three important events. Firstly, she designated India a Major Non-Nato Ally. Secondly, in conjunction with this, she and Prime Minister Rahul Gandhi signed the India and United States Partnership and Security Treaty (IUSPAST). IUSPAST established a non-binding military alliance and partnership between India and the United States, and also removed many remaining tariffs and trade barriers. Lastly, the full body of the UN voted during her visit to add Brazil and India as permanent UNSC members (albeit without vetoes).
January 8th, 2021: Norwegian voters once again choose not to join the European Union, however with a higher turnout, the No option won with an even narrower difference than in 1994, only a 0.8% difference. Media comment how could the failure of the membership referendum affect the current Venstre-Høyre coalition.
January 23rd, 2021: Ethiopia, frustrated by the civil war that has plagued their neighbor Somalia for 30 years (leaving them with an unstable eastern border), decides to recognize Somaliland, the autonomous region and aspiring sovereign state in the northwest region of the country. At a ceremony in Addis Ababa, the Somaliland-Ethiopia embassy is formally opened, making Ethiopia the first country to recognize the existence of the Republic of Somaliland. Somalia, in retaliation, suspends formal diplomatic relations with Ethiopia.
January-March 2021: Over the next two months, Ethiopia works to persuade other nations to recognize Somaliland as independent. Their motivations behind this are twofold: first, they wish to establish good diplomatic relations with Somaliland. Second, by having more nations establish formal diplomatic relations with it, Somaliland's economy opens up to more markets, thus giving Ethiopia (a trading partner) economic benefits. The Central African Republic becomes the second nation to recognize Somaliland on January 27, and it is quickly followed by the Republic of the Congo, Benin, Equatorial Guinea, and Madagascar.
On February 8, after vigorous debate, the Arab League announces it supports the independence of Somaliland, giving it recognition from all Arab States except for Somalia and Morocco. East Africa recognizes Somaliland on February 10, leading many other African nations to follow suit. The United Kingdom becomes the first European country to recognize it on February 15, leading most other sovereign states to do the same.
January 27th, 2021: The “New Years Rebound” of 2021. Nearly a week after the second inauguration of President Gillibrand, the economy begins to undergo a drastic improvement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average opens at it's highest since February 2014. By March 2021, Unemployment has fallen to 7.3%, falling 1.8% sinceDecember of 2020.
January 30th, 2021: In Niger, presidential elections are held. Ali Lamine Zeine, a close associate of former autocratic President Mamadou Tandja (who ruled from 1996-2010) declares victory. His victory is challenged by Ilguilas Weila, an anti-slavery activist and opposition candidate. Weila says that the election was stolen from him by Zeine.
February 8th, 2021: Chinese hackers launch attacks on CIA, FBI, NSA, and Department of Homeland Security computers, vandalizing the sites, and launching “denial of service” viruses onto the sites.
A military coup occurs in Niger, led by Ali Lamine Zeine, who is declared to be President. Opposition candidate Ilguilas Weila is jailed, and charged with treason. However, the coup is opposed by Lieutenant General Salou Djibo, who led a 2010 coup which restored democracy to Niger.
February 9th-May 20th, 2021: The first stage of the Nigerien Civil War occurs. President Ali Lamine Zeine, who claims to have won the disputed 2021 election, had subsequently launched a military coup and jailed the opposition candidate, Ilguilas Weila. However, Weila was supported in the military by reformist general Salou Djibo, who took control of several towns and launched an attack on Niamey.
February 13th, 2021: The popular manga-inspired comic series Human Legacy is aired for the first time on television, making it's debut on Adult Swim's 1am time slot. The first episode does reasonably well, garnering over 2.9 million viewers on the first airing.
February 23rd, 2021: In the 2021 Canadian Federal Election, incumbent Prime Minister Dominic LeBlanc wins an huge victory and increases the number of seats the Liberal Party holds in the House of Commons. His opponent in the election, Peter MacKay, resigns as leader of the Conservative Party, who is later replaced by Harper Cabinet Veteran John Baird.
March 25th, 2021: The monthlong 2021 World Baseball Classic closes in Denver, Colorado. Japan emerge as the champions, beating out America for their third title. In third place are Cuba, and rounding out the heap in fourth place are the Dominican Republic.
March 29th, 2021: President Gillibrand's approval hits 74%, the highest of any President since President Bush after the September 11th attacks.
April 17, 2021: Publication by Yale University Press of Throne of Bones and Blood: The Fall of Assad and the Rebirth of Syria by Dr. Gregory Thomas Gottschalk.
April 20th, 2021: Colombia announces that it will join ALADEC in 2018. ALADEC, created by the Treaty of Florianopolis in 2016, comprises Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Uruguay. Chile and Argentina are strong opponents of the organization, viewing it as a threat to free trade and to South American unity. All the members of ALADEC, commonly thought of as a Brazilian-led group, follow Lulaist economic programs modeled on Brazil's.
May 2nd, 2021: The UNODC (UN Office on Drugs and Crime) releases a report that calls attention to increasing rates of drug production and consumption in Brazil. In particular, the report cites studies which find that among Brazil's large middle class, cocaine usage has increased 60% from 2011 levels and marijuana usage is at record levels. Production is also an issue; the study cites several raids taken by the Brazilian army in the last few years on drug “camps” and farms in the jungle. On the whole, the report concludes that “Brazil is endangered by three factors; a growing middle class consumer base for illegal drugs; transport conduits among the underprivileged and rural; and a large, uncontrolled interior with the correct climate for the growth of illegal drugs”. However, the report also says that Brazilian authorities have mostly been taking the correct actions to deal with the growing drug problem, reporting that corruption among Brazilian authorities is low and “not in any way an endemic issue.”
May 5th, 2021: J.K. Rowling releases the first of two sequels to her children's novel Little Loser, entitled Overgrown Oaf. The two books, aimed at children between 8 and 12, have together sold more than 20 million copies worldwide since 2018.
May 21st, 2021: In Niger, former opposition presidential candidate Ilguilas Weila is executed for treason by President Ali Zeine's government. Weila had been supported in his claim to the Presidency by General Salou Djibo. However, with Weila's execution, Djibo announces that he himself will seek to temporarily take the Presidency, in order to “restore democracy once again” to Niger.
June 1st, 2021: Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly repeals their action of 2017, which made Atheism one of Indonesia's officially protected religions. On July 1st, it once again becomes illegal to be an atheist in Indonesia, which only recognizes Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Repeal of the “atheist allowance” was one of the major promises of conservative president Ani Yudhoyono.
June 9th, 2021: NASA announces that it will begin active work on two new exploration missions, funded by a twenty-five billion dollar budget expansion over the next fifteen years. The long-dormant Venus In-Situ Explorer is revived, and is tentatively scheduled for launch in 2027. Meanwhile, a interstellar robotic solar sail project begins development and is scheduled for launch in 2031.
June 12th, 2021: Famed historian David McCullough dies at the age of 88, while working on his latest book, The Constitutional Convention. His previous work, a history of Nigeria, had won widespread acclaim, including from the President of Nigeria and Chinua Achebe, the famous novelist.
June 29th, 2021: 'The Legend of the Dark Knight', the sequel to the highly successful 'Batman Beyond' and 'The Tomorrow Knight', is released in cinemas. It shows McGinnis desperately trying to truly live up to the legacy of the cowl as he is increasingly tempted by ever more brutal methods as an assassin takes out swathes of the city's most high profile citizens. Doubting his worth as Batman as he continues to be beaten down by the mysterious foe and doubting the value of his mission as many of the victims are some of the most notorious members of the criminal underworld or corrupt officials. The film ends with Terry taking down the assassin, only to be confronted with the true mastermind behind the plot, Dr. Elliot Strange, the Deputy Mayor being revealed. 'Hush' proceeds to kill his own assassin and Bruce Wayne himself while detonating a bomb that kills the Mayor, Police Commissioner and half the rest of the City leadership, all of whom are beyond reproach, and frames Batman for all the murders committed by him, leaving the film to surprisingly close with Terry entirely broken and without a single ally as Strange proceeds to take power.
July 2021: As elections approach for a new president of the Bulgarian republic, new support arises for the restoration of Simeon Sakskoburggotski as king. Many Bulgarians refuse to contemplate losing the wildly popular ex-king as head of state and a referendum is proposed.
July 2nd, 2021: The band Solfire is formed in Copenhagen by natives Kennet Esperson on guitar, fiddle, oud, and rabab, Mogen al-Asjid Khader on drums and backup vocals, and Swede Hanna Sjosted on lead vocals. They begin experimenting with a style which combines North African Berber and Arab tonalities with Norse fiddling and rock music.
July 4th, 2021: Mexican Midterm elections for the Chamber of Deputies give President Hernández a slim majority for the PRD, who have also formed an allaince with the PVEM and Convergence. The PAN is beginning to recover from the Calderón years while the PRI continues to reel from it's worst electoral performance since 2000.
Chamber of Deputies Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) - 251 National Action Party (PAN) - 102 Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) - 81 Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) - 16 Labor Party (PT) - 10 Nueva Alianza (PNA) - 14 Convergence - 17 Independents - 9
In Niger, the Battle of Niamey occurs. General Salou Djibo's forces enter and take control of the capitol, seizing power from President Ali Lamine Zeine. Zeine had become President following a disputed election in January, and subsequently jailed and executed the opposition candidate, Ilguilas Weila. Weila's cause, and the democratic movement in general, however, had been taken up by Djibo.
Six years to the day the New York Tower was announced as a project, the building opens it's door. It is seen by the public as a monument to what America can still accomplish.
July 10th, 2021: Former president Ali Zeine of Niger is exiled to Sudan, while General Salou Djibo becomes President and leader of Niger for the first time since his 2010 coup, which temporarily restored democracy to Niger.
August 27th, 2021: President Gillibrand introduces the American High Speed Rail Act to Congress. The legislation seeks to establish a Continental Rail Network (CRN), connecting major cities via a system of high speed trains capable of reaching 400+ mph.
September 2, 2021: Dinosaur DNA is extracted from Giraffatitan brancai fossils in Tanzania. Paralititan stromeri DNA surfaces soon after in Egypt. Hopes (and fears) of an actual “Jurassic Park” rise.
September 11th, 2021: America remembers the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks. A Memorial service is held in New York at The Freedom Tower, which is attended by thousands, and millions more watch on TV from around the world. President Kristen Gillibrand gives a small speech, but plays little role in the overall ceremony, instead allowing former President George W. Bush, who served as President during the attacks, to give the main speech, which many consider to be the best one given in his entire life.
The football associations of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi-Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Mauritania, Oman and Somalia decide to form the AFA. The exclusion of Iran leads to quarreling, but conflict is resolved in a way which leaves Iran part of AFC.
September 15th, 2021: The Bulgarian monarchy restoration referendum passes with the approval of 53% of voters. King Simeon II, a statesman and diplomat considered to be a national treasure, resumes the throne he was forced to abandon exactly 75 years before.
October 13th, 2021: In baseball, the Boston Red Sox win the World Series.
October 19th, 2021: Admiral Yezhel, along with other top members of the junta governemnt are executed by firing squad in a seclet location. The secrecy of the execution provokes condemns from different human rights organizations.
November 3rd, 2021: Carmen Arteaga, a Mexican political activist from Chilpancingo, Guerrero founds the group Mexicanos para Reforma Electoral Verdadera or MREV (Mexicans for True Electoral Reform), a grass roots organization dedicated to allowing politicians to run for multiple terms. This comes soon after the 2021 Midterm elections, where Deputies are only allowed one three year term without reelection. Arteaga argues that this constant reshuffling of Congress fails to facilitate meaningful legislation from passing.
November 25th, 2021: The Chicago Fire win the Major League Soccer Cup over D.C. United, 5-1.
November 29th, 2021: Lula is reelected as United Nations Secretary General. He is credited during his first term with expanding economic aid by working much more closely with the World Bank. Additionally, the UN handling of the Russian crisis was mostly successful.
December 3rd, 2021: Former Brazilian president and incumbent UN Secretary-General Luiz Inacio da Silva dies at the age of 76 from a massive stroke. The General Assembly, in an emergency session, decides to hold a special election on December 20th to fill his term.
December 5th, 2021: The American High Speed Rail Act is passed by the Senate, formally establishing the Continental Rail Network. Construction is expected to start in 2023, with the first line completed between New York and Atlanta by 2029. Proposed rules of governance submitted to eligible Native Hawaiians passes by a large margin. The new entity calls itself the Kingdom of Hawaii. The constitution restores the monarchy in a severely limited form, calls its governing body the “legislature” and its head of government, the prime minister. It generally emulates the constitutions of the independent Kingdom of Hawaii in wording and form as much as is possible while remaining a legal Native American tribe under American law.
December 15th, 2021: Germany, France, Italy, and several other members of the European Union begin talks on the creation of an integrated federation between the member states. Sweden is lukewarm at best towards the proposal, while Poland and many other Eastern European member states are outright hostile.
December 20th, 2021: Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is elected as UN Secretary-General to fill Lula's term, beginning January 1st. She will become the first ever female Secretary-General.
January 3rd, 2022: South Africa is elected to the United Nations Security Council, a diplomatic victory. South Africa is known as the “powerhouse of Africa”, leading the continent in development, democracy, and economic power.
January 17th, 2022: Canadian Prime Minister Dominic LeBlanc, in cooperation with the provincial governments of Ontario and Quebec, announces plans for a high speed railway running from Hamilton, Ontario to Quebec City, Quebec. Thanks to his majority in the House of Commons, the plan is easily passed, though Opposition Leader John Baird bemoans the plan a “useless spending.”
January 20th, 2022: General Salou Djibo wins the presidential election in Niger over Karidjo Mahamadou, in a contest closely watched by international observers. The election is judged to be free and relatively fair. An Economist article calls General Djibo “Niger's last best hope”, noting that since 2010, he has twice restored democracy to the extremely troubled country of Niger.
January 25th, 2022: In her State of the Union address, President Kirsten Gillibrand unveils an ambitious plan for the United States to return to the Moon by 2030, as well as place a human on the planet Mars by 2040. NASA in the following months gets drastically increased funding for the “Apollo Project”.
January 29th, 2022: King Albert II of the Belgians (b. 6 June 1934), dies from complications of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on icy roads while in the Ardennes. The king had planned to meet with Wallonian separatist leaders in Liege in an attempt to resolve longstanding nation-rending conflicts. He is succeeded by his son Philippe (b. 15 April 1960).
February 6th, 2022: The XXIV Winter Olympiad opens in Denver, Colorado, USA.
March 2nd, 2022: In Somalia, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) launches a major offensive against Al-Shabab and their capital of Galkayo, sending 60,000 troops north in the hopes of finally reuniting most of Somalia. The attack, termed Operation Huilkan Allah (Heavenly Fire), begins with the Battle of Dhusamareb, a minor TFG victory.
March 13th, 2022: A 6.8 magnitude earthquake tears through western Guatemala, causing major damage to the city of Huehuetenango, killing over 1,000 people. The President of Guatemala declares a state of emergency and dispatches emergency crews to aid the survivors. Notable among the aid and rescue teams sent to the region from all over the world are México's world famous Topos (Spanish for Moles), expert earthquake rescue workers sent by President Hernández on the request of Guatemala.
March 13th, 2022: Notable Eurofederalist UMP candidate, Émile Deschanel is elected President of France as a conseusus candidate between MoDem and UMP. After third defeat in a presidential election, François Hollande resigns as PS leader.
March 17, 2022: A Republican Senator introduces the American Copyright Protection Act (ACPA), which would extend the copyright term in the US an additional 30 years. The bill is heavily lobbied for by The Disney Corporation, which is seeking to protect the copyright of Steamboat Willie (set to enter the public domain on 1/1/2024). Several social networking and encyclopedia sites, such as Wikipedia and Facebook, publicly announce their opposition to the legislation, with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales calling it “a shameful attempt to profit off the work of a man long dead to prevent it from benefiting the whole of humanity instead of a private corporation.” Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox and Warner Music Group announce their support of ACPA.
March 23rd, 2022: The Pakistani Taliban reignites conflict in the Northwest Frontier provinces, determined to topple government authority in the region. The Pakistani military, now devoid of US military aid since the US's reorientation toward India as a major ally, suffers several humiliating defeats at the hands of the Taliban, and is pushed back to a line defending the cities of Peshawar and Mardan by the end of the year.
March 24, 2022: Numerous social networking sites publicly criticize the ACPA, accusing the Disney Corporation of greed and preventing the advancement of the public domain to protect their own profits. Several Congressmen and Senators, in the wake of public outcry against the bill, reverse their support of it.
March 27th, 2022: For the first time in the history of Hong Kong, the Chief Executive is directly elected. Despite that the pro-democracy camp does not have enough seats in the “Nomination Committee” to nominate a candidate, 27 pro-establishment NC members endorses lawmaker Wong Chi-yung of the People's Governance Party. Wong, a 41-year-old lawmaker who begins his career simply as a social worker, is at first seen as unelectable, but he has done incredibly well in the debates thanks to his dream team of shadow cabinet. Capitalizing of public memory of the Tam Kwok-kiu and Lee Cheuk-yan incidents, Wong Chi-yung surprisingly defeats DAB Chairman Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan [1] by a 50.7%-49.3% margin.
March 31, 2022: ACPA is withdrawn from Congress, to the cheers of the public and jeers of the Walt Disney Company.
April 1st, 2022: Noted American director and producer George Lucas dies at the age of seventy-seven. Best known for his Star Wars and Indiana Jones series', Lucas had become known in recent years for his vocal opposition to 3D film formats.
April 3rd, 2022: Elections held for the twenty-four seat lower house of the Native Hawaiian legislature.
April 6th, 2022: Beijing announces that it would not appoint Hong Kong Chief Executive-elect Wong Chi-yung as the city's next leader. According to the Basic Law, the Chief Executive has to be appointed by Beijing. Instead, Beijing appoints Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan, the loser in the election Chief Executive citing that “Cheung has gained the support nearly half of the citizens, and could broadly represent the people of Hong Kong”. Almost all Western countries refuse to recognize Cheung as the new leader of Hong Kong. For the first time since 2014, riots break out.
April 12th, 2022: Elections held for the twenty-four seat House of Nobles, the upper body of the Native Hawaiian legislature. Six are chosen from the Island of Hawai'i', six from the islands of Mau'i, Moloka'i and Lana'i; nine from the Island of O'ahu; and three from the Islands of Kaua'i and Ni'ihau.
April 14th, 2022: Despite anti-government riots, opinion polls in Hong Kong shows that 70% of people are angered by Beijing's appointment of Cheung the loser. The Hong Kong University Public Opinion Poll Center is immediately outlawed by Chief Executive Regina Ip due to national security concerns. The People's Liberation Army is called in to clear the protesters.
April 17th, 2022: Unlike the riots in the early 2010s, riots did not die down despite the deaths of hundreds. The PLA continues to kill protesters, despite Western condemnations and threats to impose sanction against China. However, given China's economic strength, it is a forgone conclusion that the United States and Europe would do nothing other than condemning China.
April 19th, 2022: Internet services in Hong Kong have been shut down. It would not be reopened until March 2026. Chief Executive-elect Wong Chi-yung is arrested for subversive activities against the Central Government, and disappears since then. 27 other pro-democracy lawmakers are arrested, 6 fled Hong Kong to the United States, while 3 decides to support the government against “the Western-inspired conspiracy”. By then, even the vase opposition parties are dead. Democracy is officially over in Hong Kong.
May 7th, 2022: Korean geneticist Jeun Chul shocks the world by revealing a 2-year old clone of himself, named Bae.
May 16th, 2022: A new study finds that an estimated 30% of Americans identify as “non-religious”, and that the number of Atheists and Agnostics in the country has also grown over the past decade. Many attribute the growing numbers to the reign of terror of religious fanatics lead by S.O.U.L. in the mid-to-late Twenty-Teens, which is suspected to have turned many people away from organized religion.
May 19th, 2022: Solfire, a Danish band, releases their first album, Tales of the Occident. It becomes a sleeper hit in the European music scene (English lyrics), and Occident is downloaded 29 million times from the band website. Solfire uses a non-traditional payment structure, in which they allow fans to download their music for free, with an optional donation. They make over 45 million dollars from this system. Hanna Sjosted, the lead singer, donates 10 million of her 12 million dollars to charity.
June 1st, 2022: For the first time ever, all teams in Major League Soccer are profitable. The league reports that the most profitable teams are the Chicago Fire, the New England Revolution, the Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders FC and the Montreal Impact.
June 6th, 2022: Newly-crowned King Philippe of the Belgians plays a significant role in negotiations which narrowly avert Flemish secession from the Kingdom of Belgium.
July 1st, 2022: Chinese hackers launch a coordinated cybernetic warfare attack on the nationalist Kuomingtang government in Taipei, effectively wiping out the financial assets of many corporate and political leaders.
June 30th, 2022: 'The Legend of the Tomorrow Knight' is released in cinemas, the fourth film in the 'Batman Beyond' series of films and the concluding part to the events begun in 'The Legend of the Dark Knight.' The main villain from the last film, Doctor Elliot Strange, has taken over as Mayor of Gotham. Triggering the second part of his plan, he triggers a gang war, having created a power vaccum at the top levels in the previous film, and blames the new Batman as having started it, amassing vast emergency power in fighting the street gangs battling it out on the street and in hunting down the “terrorist pretender to the noble legacy of Batman” so that he can come to Gotham's rescue and have the lasting authority to “do what the Batmans never could and truly stomp out the decay in this city.”
Destroyed, Terry spends his time out of cowl exploring the true legacy of the mantle of the Dark Knight, reviewing the history of his mentor and predecessor. After seeing the brutality of Strange's new methods on the streets and facing his own reasons for taking on the cowl Terry rediscovers the righteousness of what Batman stands for and takes on Strange directly, halting his attacks on the city before exposing him publicly and handing him over to the authorities. The film ends with Terry having truly embraced the cowl and made it his own, listening to a recording made to him by Bruce in the event of his death.
July 8th, 2022: In Somalia, a government offensive against Al-Shabab (Operation Huilkan Allah) is completely stopped outside the town of Cadaado. In the Battle of Cadaado, 8000 government troops betray their comrades and the Transitional Federal Government suffers close to 12,000 casualties (including over 2000 fatalities). Al-Shabab recaptures the town easily, and begins a counter-offensive.
July 11, 2022: India and the United States sign the US-Indian Free Trade Agreement. This pact, also known as the Treaty of Mumbai, is considered one of the foundations of the growing American-Indian alliance.
July 15-28th, 2022: Al-Shabab captures Dhusa Mareb, in Somalia, beginning a rollback of government control that lasts for 13 days. Islamist forces advance over 200 miles, coming within 65 miles of Mogadishu.
July 21st, 2022: The twenty-second FIFA World Cup concludes in Qatar. Defending champions Germany wins the final 7-6 over Qatar. Qatar was the first Arab country to reach the finals, and their run elicited a great deal of excitement across the Arab World. An estimated 770 million people watch the final.
July 25th, 2022: After a good performance of Émile Deschanel in his first months of presidency in the New Caledonian Crisis (more on this later), the UMP achieves its first absolute majority since Nicolas Sarkozy's term as president.
August 1st, 2022: An Islamist uprising orchestrated by Al-Shabab begins in Mogadishu, while Shabab forces press forward near the Somali town of Jowhar.
August 3rd, 2022: A popular Japanese anti-fascist is violently murdered by mysterious agents in San Francisco after appearing on an alternative media talk show.
Government troops finally manage to crush the Islamist uprising in Mogadishu, and continue holding out in the Battle of Jowhar. Al-Shabab announces a ceasefire, saying that their advances “must be secured and defended in God's name.” The Islamist militant group has captured much of central Somalia since the Spring, and has also sent feelers into Puntland. In the wake of their defeat, public confidence in the Transitional Federal Government has collapsed throughout much of the country.
August 8th, 2022: After the murder of Toshiji Fukui, a popular Japanese anti-fascist in San Francisco by mysterious agents, it is revealed that the case is connected to the far-right New Blood League in Japan.
August 17th, 2022: In Japan, New Blood League leader Matsuhiro Kimura is arrested for conspiracy against the Japanese government and his involvement in the death of Toshiji Fukui.
September 4th, 2021: Researchers at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center announce a major step forward in the development of AIDS management drugs. They have developed a new type of antiretroviral drug known as Anti-Viral Hyper-Activation Limiting Therapeutics (AV-HALT drugs). The new drug, known as Erinle (after the Yoruba god of health) will hopefully prevent patients infected with HIV from ever developing AIDS. As yet, however, Erinle will be expensive to produce and outside the range of economic feasibility to “cure” AIDS. Additionally, of course, Erinle does nothing to prevent people from being infected with HIV. Dr. Nghiem, the head researcher at the Diamond Center, says that Erinle “is a good first step on a long road.”
September 6th, 2022: In Japan, both houses vote to outlaw the New Blood League and censure its MPs.
September 11th, 2022: Former Hawaiian State Representative Quentin Kūhiō Kawānanakoa (b. 28 September 1961), is crowned king of Hawaii at Iolani Palace on the 98th birthday of former Hawaiian senator Daniel Akaka. The former senator is present as well as the governor and both U.S. Senators who had returned to Honolulu for the event.
September 24th, 2022: At a private party in Los Angeles, California, actor Brad Pitt is shot and killed by a deranged fan with multiple personality disorder. The gunman, 30-year-old Jonathan Chance, is found to be insane and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in a mental institution.
October 15th, 2022: In baseball, the Minnesota Twins win the World Series.
October 17th 2022: A further general election results in the first Labour government in the United Kingdom for nearly twelve years with Yvette Cooper becoming the second female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Her husband Ed Balls is made Chancellor of the Exchequer with former Party Leader Ed Miliband as Home Secretary. Former US Ambassador David Miliband who has stood for a seat in the election is made Leader of the House of Commons while Chuka Umunna is Foreign Secretary.
October 20th, 2022: Daniel Craig makes his 8th and final outing as British secret agent James Bond in the hit film No More Pain. Craig has occupied the role for the past 16 years making him the longest running Bond so far
November 3rd, 2022: In US midterm elections, the Democrats gain 2 seats in the House, while the Senate remains constant in terms of party. However, in Illinois, Democratic Congressman Ryan Kirkpatrick defeats incumbent Senator Mark Kirk. Congressman Kirkpatrick is the fist South Asian and mixed-race Senator to be elected from Illinois. He had become well known for his foreign policy suggestions, including a campaign to deepen relations with India. As the son of an Indian immigrant, Kirkpatrick had been instrumental in pushing the White House to designate India a MNNA (Major Non-NATO Ally).
In addition, Kirkpatrick was well known as a supporter of high-speed rail and green energy. As one of the co-sponsors of the American High-Speed Rail Act, he was a valuable spokesperson and helped get the bill through the House. The Congressman's rapid rise led him to be compared to Barack Obama; however, he dismissed all such comparisons, saying publicly that “If I were half the man Chief Justice Obama is, I'd be president by now.”
House of Representatives Democratic: 298 seats (+2) Republican: 137 seats
Senate Democratic: 60 seats Republican: 40 seats
November 12th, 2022: Death of H.R.H Princess Beatrix, former Queen of the Netherlands (1980-2013) from complications of severe anemia.
December 12th, 2022: Japan launches Jisei 1, its first manned space mission.
Late 2022-Early 2023: India experiences a short yet highly visible recession, it's first in many years. The recession, lasting 3 quarters, is caused by inflation and high food prices (particularly of imported staples like onions and potatoes). The recession, in conjunction with bribery and misdealing investigations, shutters two major state-owned Indian banks, UCO and IDBI. Surjaa Chakravorty, Deputy President of the NDP, calls these “more examples of the inefficiency of wide government control over the economy.” The recession ends beginning in the third quarter of 2023, with India having experienced a total .9% drop in GDP. Prime Minister Rahul Gandhi's approval rating drops to 31%.
November 10th, 2022: The Chicago Fire win the Major League Soccer Cup over the San Jose Earthquakes, 5-4.
December 2nd, 2022: Ownership of the island of Kaho'olawe, monies from the Native Hawaiian Trust Fund formerly administered by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and other real estate are transferred to the Kingdom of Hawaii tribal government.
December 22nd, 2022: In an effect to lower the chronically high unemployment rate, the Parliament of Namibia, at the urging of President Ngurare, passes the National Works and Employment Act, which authorizes the government to hire large numbers of workers to work on public projects.
December 28th, 2022: President Ngurare of Namibia announces the first three large projects under the National Works and Employment Act. The first will be a high-speed rail link to Cape Town, South Africa from Windhoek. Running over 1,600 km, the line will employ over 12,000 Namibians in construction, management, and design jobs. Similarly, a high-speed rail link will be built through the Namib Desert to Gaborone, Botswana. This shorter line will employ 7,000 Namibians for six years to construct, with the help of German and French engineers. Finally, President Ngurare announces the creation of the Namibian Renewable Solar Power Company (NSH, in Afrikaans), which will be partially state-owned and partially private. NSH intends to build three massive solar stations in the Namib Desert and sell the power to South Africa, as well as, of course, supplying Namibia. The three stations, employing 9,000 Namibians, will be finished in 2026 and are expected to provide up to 60% of Namibia's electricity and 8% of South Africa's.
January 18th, 2023: The Brazilian Secretaria de Comunicação Social announces that in the third-and-fourth quarters of 2022, Brazil entered a recession. The recession is tied mainly to two factors; lack of credit in rural areas as banks avoid financing the narcotics trade, and the current economic instability in India and the United States. India now represents 16% of Brazil's trade, up from 7.1% in 2008. Brazil's president, Guido Mantega, announces that the government will immediately take action to quickly reverse this “regrettable retraction.”
January 20th, 2023: The first proper “internet series” is released. While several groups and people had created internet shows in the past, this is the first show that became mainstream and widely recognizable. The series is named David and is a sitcom about a married couple. Despite the tired premise, the material is fairly original for its time, and the people behind the show, The Temany Production Group (TPG), go on to become one of the “big five” internet entertainment industries.
January 24th, 2023: Since the near-collapse of the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia, the country has been reeling. Autonomous region Puntland declares its independence from the Somali Transitional Federal Government, in the hopes that Ethiopia and the rest of the world will support it, as they did Somaliland. However, Ethiopia's foreign minister declares that unlike Somaliland, which was previously British Somalia, Puntland has no historical basis for independence. Nevertheless, Puntland begins organizing a government based on the traditional Somali xeer system.
February 5th, 2023: The Buffalo Bills win Super Bowl LVIII in Cowboys Stadium against the Philadelphia Eagles. It is the teams first NFL Championship. Quarterback Stephen Witt wins the Super Bowl MVP by going 18-30 with 302 yards passing, 2 touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also has 4 rushes for 18 yards and a touchdown.
February 26th, 2023: Despite widespread media speculation of a presidential run, Vice President Cory Booker (D-NJ) declines a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
March 3rd, 2023: The Continental Rail Network (CRN) begins its planned two decade construction with a groundbreaking ceremony at Manhattan's Penn Station.
March 20th, 2023: Senator Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) declares his candidacy for the 2024 Democratic nomination.
March 29th, 2023: Senator Ted Kennedy, Jr. (D-CT) declares his bid for President.
April 5th, 2023: Former Vice President Bobby Jindal (R-LA) surprises many when he declares his intention to seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
April 11th, 2023: In Hamilton and Quebec City, the ground is broken to begin the building of the new high speed railway, to be called the Central Canadian Speed Rail, or CCSR. The railway is planned to be completed and ready for use by 2030.
May-September 2023: Iberian Water Riots; Thousands of citizens protest in parts of Spain after several years of government mismanagement of water resources, due in part to a prolonged drought.
May 8th, 2023: Justice Stephen Breyer dies at the age of 84. President Gillibrand announces that the vacancy on the Court will be filled by Jeannie Suk, age 50, from the Fourth Circuit Appellate Court. If confirmed, Suk will be the first Asian-American woman on the high court. She was previously a tenured professor at Harvard Law, the first Asian-American woman in that position as well.
May 28th, 2023: Yemen joins the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional association of Arab states.
June 5th, 2023: Former President Anas Urbaningrum (2014-19), popular among Indonesian liberals and leftists, announces that he will leave the Reformed Democratic Party and instead join the leftist Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle and run as their candidate in the 2024 elections.
June 18th, 2023: Jeannie Suk's nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States is confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 69-29. She is inaugurated the next day. The composition of the court is now as follows (liberal wing bold, conservative italics):
Chief Justice: Barack Obama Associate Justice: Ted Ullyot Associate Justice: Anthony Kennedy Associate Justice: Clarence Thomas Associate Justice: Samuel Alito Associate Justice: Sonia Sotomayor Associate Justice: Elena Kagan Associate Justice: Diane Wood Associate Justice: Jeannie Suk
June 20th, 2023: The Florida High-Speed Rail system opens between the cities of Tampa and Orlando.
June 29th, 2023: Texas Governor Julian Castro (D-TX) announces that he will run for President in 2024.
July 1st, 2023: A bombing in Algiers kills 23 people. Islamist terrorists announce that they are forming a new group, Jai al Jat Har el-Allah (Liberation Army of God), or al-Jat Harir. Al-Jat Harir, they say, shall continue the struggle against dictatorship in order to establish an Islamic state. Algerian President Hanoune pledges to give no mercy to any terrorists captured.
July 2nd, 2023: Twenty-year-old Crown Prince Moulay Hassan of Morocco dies in a motorcycle accident. His sister, Lalla Khadija, is now in line to the throne.
July 10th, 2023: After a decade of work, the first successful modeling of a long-chain protein ab initio is published. This represents a major breakthrough for computer simulations for biomedical research. However, there are decades of work remaining in order to achieve extensive genetic engineering, if it is even feasible.
July 14th, 2023: Ukraine's membership application is accepted by the European Parliament after recomendation by the European Commission. The Union State follows suit with a communique condemning the Tymoshenko family of corruption charges in Russia and banning them from returning to the Union State.
July 18th, 2023: The World Health Organization reports that in 2022, less than 1 million people were newly infected with HIV, the lowest number in more than 30 years. Condom use campaigns have been relatively successful in Africa and Southeast Asia. In particular, the Catholic Church has been distributing condoms in those countries since 2017, and the church's organizational structure has allowed far more efficient distribution than other aid organizations.
August 9th, 2023: Increased resentment against the People's Party's government over mismanagement of water shortage issues leads to the second dismission of a Spanish Prime Minister since 1975. Temporary Spanish Prime Minister, Mr. Ruíz-Gallardon Jimenez (PP) asks in a special meeting of the European Council that water be sent to Spain to remedy the water shortage.
September 12-15th, 2023: Nigerian President Ibrahim Shekarau visits South Africa. The two countries sign the Joint Development and Free Trade Pact, marking the beginning of what is known as the “Alliance for Democracy”. Nigeria has overcome it's sectarian troubles of past years after a deal signed in 2015 between northern and southern politicians granted great autonomy to the newly re-organized 21 states. The states, larger in size than before and more equal in population, are each headed by a powerful governor, while the authority of the federal government is reduced to mostly military and foreign issues, as well as national parks, etc. With several peaceful transfers of power consecutively, Nigeria is now marked as a “stable democracy”, and Freedom House ranks Nigeria as “Free” in 2019, an update from “Partly Free”.
September 20th, 2023: Brazil declares that its brief recession ended in the second quarter of the year, as lowered lending rates led to a renewal of credit throughout Brazil and an infusion of spending.
September 29th, 2023: The first AVEMEX Line between México City and Guadalajara is completed, slashing the seven hour drive between the two cities to 2.5 hours. AVEMEX announces plans for further extensions to the cities of León, Apatzingán, Colima and Manzanillo. This is all part of AVEMEX's Plan 2035, or it's objective to complete these extensions by 2035.
October 5th, 2023: A major 8.4 earthquake strikes the city of Istanbul, causing several billions of dollars in damage.
October 9th, 2023: Robotic limbs, which have become a staple for prosthetics in the past 10 years, begin to be modified to be controlled by thought alone. There are several issues, but by 2028, most stable prosthetics companies have a fully working version.
October 15th, 2023: In baseball, the Kansas City Royals win the World Series.
October 23rd, 2023: Queen Camilla, formerly known as Camilla Shand Parker-Bowles, wife of King George VII, passes away from lung cancer.
Although viewed harshly in the early years of her relationship with King George before his ascension to the throne, she later became one of the most beloved members of the royal family. Down to earth and possessing a highly developed sense of humor, Queen Camilla will be sorely missed.
November 21st, 2023: Son of revered former president Lázaro Cárdenas and thrice presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas dies in his sleep at the age of 89. President Hernández orders all flags be put at half mast and announces a week of mourning in his memory. At his funeral President Hernández eulogizes him as “a great man of our times who helped México return to democracy.”
November 22nd, 2023: The C.D. Chivas USA win the Major League Soccer Cup over the Seattle Sounders FC, 4-2.
December 18th, 2023: Fickle Failure, J.K. Rowling's final book in her Loser series, is released. The series is aimed at pre-teen children. Fickle Failure sells over 10 million copies in its first year of release.
December 18th, 2023: After civil unrest is mostly over, general elections are held, the main opposition party, the PSOE of Mr. Alvaro Sánchez Salardón wins the elections against Esperanza Aguirre's PP. However, the PSOE only receiving a plurality of votes, forms a coalition governemnt with Catalan sepratist CiU and centrist UPyD, in what was called the Magenta Cabinet, because of the boost that the colaition governemnt would give UPyD.
January 1, 2024: Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie officially enters the public domain in the US, over the vocal protests of the Walt Disney Company. Several prominent internet personalities celebrate what they call “a triumph of the people over corporate greed” by playing the Steamboat Willie clip on a loop on their homepages.
January 3rd, 2024: Former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passes away from congestive heart failure. President Gillibrand declares a day of mourning. Her funeral is attended by over 3000 people.
January 4th, 2024: Japan's Emperor Akihito (known posthumously as the Heisei Emperor) succumbs to pneumonia at the age of 90. He is succeeded by his son Crown Prince Naruhito (born 23 February 1960).
January 9th, 2024: China finally attempts their first unmanned mission to Mars. The probe's initial launch is successful but unfortunately, something goes wrong just after leaving the mesosphere, and the probe explodes violently in mid air over far eastern Siberia.
January 11th, 2024: Texas Governor Julian Castro wins a huge come from behind victory in the Iowa Caucuses, defeating Senator Ford by 5%, and Senator Kennedy by 14%.
January 13th, 2024: In Taiwan, New Taipei Mayor Jay Chou (DPP) wins the presidential election against KMT Chairman and former Taoyuan magistrate John Chih-yang Wu (KMT) with comfortable margins, becoming the youngest ever President in Taiwan's history.
Republic of China legislative election, 2024 Democratic Progressive Party 60 Kuomintang 41 Non-Partisan Solidarity Union 4 Taiwanese Patriotic Party 4 Labor Party 2 Independents 2 Incumber Speaker: Ker Chien-ming (DPP) Speaker-elect: Liu Chien-kuo (DPP)
January 18th, 2024: Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs passes away in San Francisco, CA from liver failure.
January 21st, 2024: In Japan, the ruling Democratic Party wins the general election, though its majority in the House of Representatives is sharply reduced. Seiji Maehara continues to serve as Prime Minister of Japan, and the DPJ-Komeito coalition continues. The election results are as followed: DPJ 267, YP 93, Social Credit Party 42, New Komeito 34, LDP 25, JCP 7, SDP 3, Others / non-partisan / independents 9.
March 13th, 2024: The Mexican newspaper El Universal releases a report on what they coin “el Milagro de Juárez” (the Miracle of Juárez). After an all time high homicide rate of 9 murders per day in 2015, authorities in Ciudad Juárez report a drop of nearly 80% in homicides in nearly a decade. Ciudad Juárez's Municipal President (equivalent to Mayor) claims the revitalization of commerce and business in his city as testament to the place once known as “the most dangerous in the Western Hemisphere.”
March 16th, 2024: Professional bassist Prince Felix of Denmark (born July 22nd 2002), the younger son of Prince Joachim and his former wife Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, jins the popular band Solfire.
March 17th, 2024: In deep mourning for his wife Camilla, King George VII gives his brother the Duke of York permission to remarry his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. Although considered a hopeless mess and a loose cannon in previous years, the Duchess had lived an exemplary life for the previous decade. The couple were joined again quietly with the king in attendance in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
March 26th, 2024: French business airline l'Atlantique unveils the first commercially available supersonic route in twenty years, between New York and Paris. The Embraer-made aircraft seats approximately 50 passengers in a business-class arrangement. Over the next few decades, supersonic flight will gradually replace subsonic intercontinental air travel.
April-May, 2024: Parliamentary elections are held in India. Rahul Gandhi, the current PM of India, is running for a third term, the first Prime Minster to do so. However, his Congress Party has held the premiership for 20 years (since 2004) and there are many discontented with his government. The recent recession, the first in generations, contributed to widespread popular appetite for change. The New Democratic Party of India is projected to make massive gains with their popular policies and young, vigorous leadership. 820 million people vote, making this the largest democratic election in the history of humanity.
After the election, the seats of the Lok Sabha (House of the People) are apportioned thusly:
New Democratic Party of India (NDP): 282 seats. New Democratic Alliance (led by the Bharatiya Janata Party): 129 seats. United Progressive Alliance (led by the Congress Party): 54 seats. Left Front: 60 seats. Independents: 8 seats. Anglo-Indian Representatives: 2 seats.
The government, with 288 seats, is formed by the NDP, along with several independents and the Anglo-Indian representatives. The success of the NDP, India's first big-tent party, has caused severe distress within the ranks of the BJP and especially within the Congress Party, which has fallen to a mere 44 seats. Surjaa Chakravorty, aged 36 years and head of the NDP, is inaugurated as India's youngest Prime Minister ever on May 29th.
April 5th, 2024: Pakistan's military leadership topples the civilian government in Islamabad, due to the ineffective response to the conflict in the Northwest Frontier and its attempts to negotiate with the Taliban, and installs a military dictatorship. The military's strategy switches to lashing out an all-out offensive against the Taliban, as well as to demonize perennial enemy India in an attempt to distract the populace from internal problems.
April 7th, 2024: The American Food and Drug Administration approves Erinle, the AV-HALT AIDS drug, for use. Erinle was developed in 2021 and has had a 99.99% success rate in preventing those infected with HIV from developing AIDS. However, it does not stop HIV infections, nor does it help cure those who already have AIDS. Erinle has, however, been further refined, and the price for a year's treatment with the drug is now only $1280
April 29th, 2024: Four car bombs go off inside hotels and resorts in the city of Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, killing 342 people. The attack brings back memories of the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, and although several militant Islamist groups claim responsibility, none of the bombers are captured. The bombings have a major effect on the Indonesian presidential election, scheduled for July. Incumbent President Ani Yudhoyono, a conservative, fails to fully condemn the attacks. She suggests that “perhaps the provocation of the immorality of the dance houses had an effect on the attacks.” Her opponent, former President Anas Urbaningrum, says that the attacks are an example of the dangers of a non-pluralistic, non-liberal society.
April 24th, 2024: Nomaindia Mfeketo of the African National Congress is elected President of South Africa after parliamentary elections give the ANC a strong majority. This marks the first time that there have been two female heads of government in Africa: Mfeketo joins Anima Mills of Ghana. Having campaigned on a pledge to strengthen the slowing economy and increase tourism, she announces the “New Africa” campaign in her inaugural address, saying that “Africa, the birthplace of humanity, is today a new continent. We can stride boldly forth as the leaders of Africa and create a bright future for us all.”
April 27th, 2024: The World Bank grants a $2.1 billion loan to twelve African countries to subsidize their purchase of Erinle, the new anti-AIDS drug. These countries are buying huge stockpiles of the drug in an effort to make them affordable to most Africans, who often cannot afford the $1280 yearly price tag.
June 8th, 2024: Following the NDP's massive electoral gains in the recent elections, a coalition of Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarians announce that they will be leaving the party. “The more extreme elements of this party have become conflated with the more extreme elements of nationalism and Hinduism in this country, and the situation is unacceptable,” says the venerable Rajnath Singh*, one of their leaders. “Our new party shall be fresh and work to provide solutions for all Indians, not just those who share our beliefs.” Styling themselves the Prakarita Kriya Party (PKP), or Progressive Advancement Party. After their announcement, the Lok Sabha is composed of the following representatives:
Government: New Democratic Party of India (NDP): 282 seats Anglo-Indian Representatives: 2 seats Independents: 4 seats
Opposition Parties: Prakarita Kriya Party (PKP): 103 seats United Progressive Alliance (led by the Congress Party): 54 seats BJP: 26 seats Left Front: 60 seats Independents: 4 seats
June 18th, 2024: Former Disney star Miley Cyrus pulls a bizarre stunt when she attempts to parachute Hannah Montana memorabilia onto passersby from her Manhattan apartment, attracting widespread media attention. Since her career at Disney ended when she turned 18, Cyrus attempted several increasingly bizarre stunts to stay in the limelight, culminating in this event before the general populace began regarding her as a has been desperate for attention.
June 30th, 2024: German Presidency Crisis erupts as Cem Özdemir finishes his final term as President of Germany. The body charged with electing a new president, the Federal Convention, made up of Bundestag members and representatives of the Länder becomes hopelessly deadlocked between two candidates, Sylvana Koch-Mehrin and Andrea Nahles (from the leftist wing of the SPD). Bowing to a general European upsurge in monarchist sentiment and desiring an impartial, non-political candidate, the Convention compromises and chooses House of Hohenzollern head, Georg Friedrich, Prinz von Preussen, (b. 10 June 1976) and pretender to the defunct Imperial German throne as the new German President.
July 7th, 2024: General Elections are held in México. The Progressive Alliance (PRD, Convergence, Nueva Alianza) holds Los Pinos with it's candidate Silvano Aureoles succeeding President Hernandez. In Congress the Progressive Alliance barely holds it's majority in the Chamber of Deputies, with the PAN continuing its growth in that body, though the Progressives still hold a slim majority in the Senate.
July 8th, 2024: Indonesia holds a presidential election. Former President Anas Urbaningrum (2014-19) of the Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle is elected to the post of President, and will serve until 2029. Urbaningrum is considered a liberal on the Indonesian stage. His Vice-President, Bachtiar Chamsyah, is the first Hindu Vice-President of Indonesia.
July 22nd-25th, 2024: Democratic National Convention; Texas Governor Julian Castro is nominated for President. Ohio Senator Tim Ryan is tapped as Castro's running mate.
July 29th-August 1st, 2024: Republican National Convention; Former Vice President Bobby Jindal is nominated for President, and taps Colorado Senator Cory Gardner as his running mate.
August 2nd-18th, 2024: The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are held in Dubai, UAE. The tournament closes with the United States having won the most medals, followed by China.
August 27th, 2024: General elections are held in Namibia. Incumbent President Ngurare of the SWAPO Party of Namibia is overwhelmingly elected to the post of President, and will continue to serve until 2029.
September 6th, 2024: In a special occasion within the rather fruitless EU Parliament, a series of German and French parliamentarians call for a pan-European referendum on a Federated Europe, UKIP, British Conservative Party and other various eurosceptic parties, walk out in the middle of the session.
September 11th, 2024: The Danish band Solfire releases their second studio album, titled The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Their style, a blend of Arab, fiddling, and rock genres, has become known as Occidental. It is widely copied and popularized in the British, French, Dutch, Nordic, and German music scenes. Solfire enjoys growing popularity in the United States, as well. Fundamentalist is downloaded 80 million times, with donations earning the band members over 200 million dollars.
October 16th, 2024: In baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series.
November 5th, 2024: The Democratic ticket of TX Governor Julian Castro/OH Senator Tim Ryan is elected over the Republican ticket of former Vice President Bobby Jindal/CO Senator Cory Gardner, in the closest presidential election since 2012.
Governor Julian Castro (D-TX) / Senator Tim Ryan (D-OH) - 354 EV - 51.6% PV Former Vice President Bobby Jindal (R-LA) / Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) - 184 EV - 47.0% PV
House of Representatives Democratic: 308 seats (+10) Republican: 127 seats
Senate Democratic: 61 seats (+1) Republican: 39 seats
November 12th, 2024: In the game FC Bayern München vs. SV Meppen, a goal is scored in the 90'+2. minute by Thomas Müller. It is the 13-0, breaking the nearly fifty year-old record of 12-0 (Borussia Mönchengladbach vs. Borussia Dortmund 1978). Meppen coach Stefan Kehl is immediately sacked.
November 17th, 2024: The United States and China sign the Environmental Protection Act of 2024, a treaty between the two nations agreeing to reduce Carbon emissions and energy consumption by 50% by 2040.
November 22nd, 2024: The Chicago Fire win the Major League Soccer Cup over the New York Red Bulls, 1-0.
November 24th, 2024: Nicholas Randall abruptly resigns as Director-General and is replaced by his deputy, Spencer Vincent. Reasons for his abrupt resignation remain a mystery.
January 1st, 2025: In the United States, the Dating Modernization Act (DMA) takes effect for all federal institutions, requiring that they use the Day/Month/Year format for official purposes. By this date, nearly all institutions of the federal government had switched over, albeit with a version of the dating system that used abbreviated months rather than numbers (I.E. 2 Jan 2020 instead of 2/1/2020) to avoid confusion.
January 2nd, 2025: Suriname and Guyana jointly announce that they will join ALADEC in 2026. ALADEC, created by the Treaty of Florianopolis in 2016, comprises Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Uruguay. Chile and Argentina are strong opponents of the organization, viewing it as a threat to free trade and to South American unity. All the members of ALADEC, commonly thought of as a Brazilian-led group, follow Lulaist economic programs modeled on Brazil's. The two countries also announce they have resolved their long-running border dispute with an acceptance of the status quo, after the intervention of Brazilian President ___.
January 5th, 2025: Venezuela objects to the accession of Guyana to ALADEC (Aládec) on the grounds that Guyana occupies Venezuelan territory. The border dispute dates back to 1898. Under Aládec rules, all member states must agree to the admission of a new country. Brazil offers to mediate the dispute.
January 6th, 2025: In a leak to the Daily Telegraph, it transpires that former Director-General Nicholas Randall was a Union State mole and had been leaking secrets to the Union State, China and India. The government of Yvette Cooper announces a full investigation and an arrest warrant for the former DG.
January 7th, 2025: Following the revelations about Nicholas Randall, the Home Secretary, Richard Capp, announces his resignation and is replaced by Monica Hardwicke. The “Randall Affair” quickly becomes compared to the Profumo Affair as the greatest embarrassment for British intelligence in decades.
January 9th, 2025: Having gone missing since revelations about his double agent status, Nicholas Randall is caught and arrested attempting to flee Britain by Edinburgh. He is remanded into custody and accused of high treason.
January 20th, 2025: Newly-inaugurated President Julian Castro outlines his New Initiative plan, calling for massively expanded public works programs nationwide. He sets a goal of having the CRN reach the West Coast by 2040, creating a truly continent-spanning railway. Republicans, however, are vehemently opposed to a high speed rail expansion despite widespread public approval of the CRN project.
January 23rd, 2025: Casey Anthony is executed by the State of Florida (by Nitrogen Asphyxiation) for the murder of her daughter Caylee.
January 24th, 2025: Venezuela agrees to allow Guyana to join the Brazil-led organization Aládec, after Guyana agrees to give special economic rights to Venezuela in the disputed border area.
January 27th, 2025: The Outline of the Formation of the Republic of Hong Kong, the famous banned book written by Marcus Aurelius Lo, a 33-year-old Western-educated Hong Kong writer, is published in the United States. Lo, now living in San Francisco, becomes the target of assassinations among “patriotic Chinese”.
February 20th, 2025: The first of three solar power stations in the Namibian Desert is completed by the Namibian Renewable Solar Power Company (NSH), a public-private entity created in 2022. Located near the small town of Kalkrand, the power station consists of over 13,000 solar panels with a total installed capacity of over 700 MW.
March 5th, 2025: An article in Rolling Stone notes that Occidental music, popularized by Danish band Solfire, has quickly become extremely popular among young people in the US, Europe, and Arab nations. The article compares the spread of Occidental music to the development of rap decades earlier.
March 8th, 2025: Prime Minister of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega suffers a mild concussion after a trivial slip at his home in Managua. He is immediately hospitalized, and after doctors stabilize his condition he is released several days later.
March 21st, 2025: In the World Baseball Classic (an inter-national baseball tournament), Brazil finishes with an unusually strong showing, ranking 8th out of 20 countries. Brazil's success is largely attributed to brothers Luiz and Paolo Gushiken. Hailing from Parana state, the twenty year-old twins have combined for a .392 average over their brief careers. Paolo is also a pitcher, with a 1.28 ERA on Brazil's small national team.
The monthlong 2025 World Baseball Classic closes in Taipei, Taiwan. Japan emerge as the champions, beating out Venezuela for their second title in a row. In third place are Nicaragua, and rounding out the heap in fourth place are the Americans.
March 27th, 2025: In a traumatic turn of events, Daniel Ortega collapses to the floor of the Nicaraguan National Assembly while in session. Suffering what paramedics would later identify as a cerebral hemorrhage, Ortega dies en route to the hospital. He is immediately succeeded by Bayardo Arce Castaño, a close associate of Ortega.
May 1st, 2025: Justice Anthony Kennedy decides to retire from the Supreme Court at age 88. President Castro, after a week's contemplation, announces that he will nominate Nicole Stelle Garnett to fill the vacancy. If confirmed, Garnett will be the first African-American woman to sit on the court. She is a moderate independent from Iowa, who had previously clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas.
May 7, 2025: The EFSA approves meat grown from stem cells for sale. It must be explicitly declared (“Steak aus Stammzellen”)
May 8th, 2025: The Indian Supreme Court rules that under the right to privacy, fertility clinics and sperm banks are banned from keeping any information on the caste of donors. The decision settles a national debate ongoing since 2015, when Rahul Gandhi's government attempted to pass the Equality in Donation Act, which would have had the same effect. After public backlash, Gandhi's government was forced to repeal part of the act, and since then, caste and donor conflict have been a state issue. Following the Court's decision, five states are forced to repeal their “caste reporting” laws, although they face minor public protests. Most Indians, especially those in urban areas, celebrate the Court's choice. Prime Minister Chakravorty also supports donors' right to privacy.
May 16th, 2025: British Home Secretary Monica Hardwicke announces that the O'Donnell Inquiry, headed by former Cabinet Secretary Lord O'Donnell will review British intelligence following the Randall Affair.
May 20th, 2025: Indonesia eliminates its identity card system, which required all Indonesians to list themselves as belonging to only Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism or Confucianism.
June 2nd, 2025: Nicole Stelle Garnett's nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States is confirmed by a 62-37 vote in the Senate. She is inaugurated the following day. The composition of the court is now as follows, ranked by seniority (liberal wing bold, conservative wing italics):
Chief Justice: Barack Obama Associate Justice: Clarence Thomas Associate Justice: Samuel Alito Associate Justice: Sonia Sotomayor Associate Justice: Elena Kagan Associate Justice: Ted Ullyot Associate Justice: Diane Wood Associate Justice: Jeannie Suk Associate Justice: Nicole Stelle Garnett
June 3rd, 2025: In the 2025 Canadian Federal Election, Dominic LeBlanc wins his third majority govenrment in a row, albeit with some loss of seats to the Conservative Party. The Convervative gains are enough for leader John Baird to convince the rest of the Party that he should stay on as leader, and he promises the victory in the next election.
June 5th, 2025: The East African Federation announces that it will join the Joint Development and Free Trade Pact, thus cementing the three members of Africa's “Alliance for Democracy”. Together, the three members (Nigeria, South Africa, and the EAF) make up approximately 30% of Africa's population and economy. All three are stable democracies. Their intergovernmental organization, the African Democracy League, is increasingly replacing the African Union as a forum to solve Africa's problems. In addition to the three main members, the group also includes Morocco, Ghana, Madagascar, Somaliland, and Namibia, as well as several other African nations.
June 10th, 2025: President Julian Castro introduces the Social Security Reform Act, which proposes the biggest changes to the entitlement program since it was conceived by Franklin Roosevelt in 1935. The bill's contents include as follows:
• Effective January 1, 2026, benefits will be indexed to inflation rather than wages. • The retirement age will be raised to 70, with early retirement preserved at 62. • Starting January 1, 2029, new recipients' benefits will be reduced by 3%. • Seniors under the federal poverty line who have worked for at least 30 years will receive at least 125% of the poverty line. • Benefits will be increased for seniors over age 85. • Benefits will be substantially decreased for upper-income retirees and modestly for middle-income retirees.
Republicans and Democrats alike criticize the bill: the GOP claiming the bill does not do enough in allowing for individuals to “opt out” of the system and open private savings accounts instead; Democrats decry the bill as “a corporate threat to Americans' hard earned retirement savings”.
June 25th, 2025: The results of the first census taken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in over fifteen years show that over 15% of the population is Muslim. This rapid rise is attributed to the fact that the Second Congolese Civil War caused a massive drop in the number of Christian missionaries, especially from Western countries. However, Muslim proselytizers continued to work during the war, and gained popularity through organizations such as the Red Crescent.
July 4th, 2025: Nicholas Randall is sentenced to maximum life imprisonment of 39 years for high treason, it transpires that if Randall serves his full term, he will be 94 years of age upon release in 2064.
July 8-9th, 2025: Fourth Battle of N'Djamena: Sudanese rebels inside Chad launch an attack on the capitol, N'Djamena, and manage to briefly hold the National Assembly Building. They are beaten back by the Chadian Army, which suffers 48 fatalities, along with an estimated 120 or more civilian deaths. Since 2021, Sudanese refugees inside Chad have participated in an armed insurgency, claiming they are being oppressed by the Chadian government on the instruction of Khartoum. The rebel group, called the Sudanese Patriotic Army (سودانيز باتريوتك أرمي , or PAS) is allied with the long-standing Chadian rebel group RFD (Rally of Democratic Forces), and opposed to UFDD, which has been allied to the Chadian government since 2019.
July 10th, 2025: Researchers at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center announce a major step forward in their development of Erinle, the AV-HALT anti-AIDS drug. Previously, Erinle had only been effective at stopping HIV from causing AIDS, and had done nothing to treat those patients who already had AIDS. Now, however, researchers say they are confident that Erinle can also lower the mortality rate of AIDS to under 2%. The Erinle team is led by Xuan Nghiem and Emilia Ascrobar, a Harvard-educated young couple.
July 11th, 2025: A son is born to Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and his duchess, the former Lady Natasha Howard. Until the death of his father, the prince is styled Prince Alexander, Earl of Strathclyde, one of his father’s courtesy titles.
July 12th, 2025: The East African Federation Parliament passes a groundbreaking infrastructure bill which is designed to bring East Africa's transport network “up to date.” Costing ∂620 billion East African shillings ($125 billion) over 10 years, the Infrastructure Investment and Improvement Act (III-A or 3-A Act) devotes $15 billion to high-speed rail, $20 billion to port construction and improvement, $5 billion to airport construction and improvement, $25 billion to highway construction, $40 billion to conventional rail, and $20 billion to urban mass-transit systems.
July 16th, 2025: Senator John Kerry (D-MA), the Democratic candidate for President in 2004, dies of a stroke in his Boston home.
July 18th, 2025: At San Diego Comic-Con, fans are given a sneak preview of Prophet, the animated rendition to the second comic series created by Juan Rivera. The story takes place in an alternate universe where the native peoples of the Americas retained their independence from European colonialism and formed their own nations and empires, and revolves around a group of social outcasts traveling through this alternate world. The story incorporates supernatural powers and integrates various Native American legends, becoming a hit with fans when it airs the following year.
July 21st, 2025: Apple, Inc. unveils the HoloPad, a tablet-like multimedia device that employs three-dimensional technology to simulate virtual “pop-up” screens. The HoloPad is an immediate success and dismisses claims by critics that Apple was “losing its innovation” after the death of Steve Jobs.
August 3rd, 2025: William G. Realdon and his team of engineers reveal their first fully functioning human-form robot. It is one of the first with flexibility and dynamic movement, and can walk reliably over uneven surfaces.
August 22nd, 2025: The U.S. and Canadian governments begin talks on constructing high speed rail connections between the CRN and the proposed Central Canadian Speed Rail by 2040.
August 30th, 2031: In four ceremonies across the East African Federation, the Nairobi Metro, Dar es Salaam Underground, Kigali Subway and Kampala Tube are inaugurated. The four mass-transit systems were built over five years, following a $20 billion investiture from the Infrastructure Investment and Improvement Act of 2031. Between them, they have 54 stops and 112 trains, with 20 more stations planned for the next ten years.
September 5th, 2025: Neo-Monarchist pressure in Germany results in the deletion by the Bundestag of one word in Section II, Article 28 of the German Constitution (Grundgesetz). The passage in question had formerly read “The constitutional order in the Länder must conform to the principles of a republican, democratic, and social state governed by the rule of law, within the meaning of this Basic Law. “ The Bundestag deletes the word “republican ” making possible the restoration of monarchy at the Länder level of government within the parameters of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
October 13th, 2025: In baseball, the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. Their first World Series victory in 116 years, the victory sparks massive celebrations in Chicago. Over 2 million people attend the victory parade, and the Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, gives all the team members keys to the city.
November 13th, 2025: The Los Angeles Galaxy win the Major League Soccer Cup over the Philadelphia Union, 2-0.
November 17th, 2025: King Simeon II of Bulgaria dies and is succeeded by his son Kardam.
December 5th, 2025: Indian Prime Minister Shurjaa Chakravorty announces her government's plan to “end the threat of the Naxalites once and for all.” In her speech, she says that military solutions have ultimately been ineffective, despite short-term gains. “The only true solution is economic; to help the poor and needy, to feed the hungry, and to house the homeless. They will not fight if they are rich and free.” To this end, she announces a massive infrastructure plan (including two nuclear plants and three huge wind farms) to provide jobs. In addition, she announces the Rural Electrification Act, which will a) connect homes to the national power grid and b) provide subsidized, and in some cases, free wind-turbines and solar panels to rural farmers. The Act, costing 250,000 crores (around 50 billion USD) is passed on December 21st.
January 1st, 2026: Carson Fuel Incorporated has by this point become the main hydrogen fuel station in California as demand continues to rise. By buying up most of private competition, the company has begun to form a monopoly. The company has also diversified into fuel cell maintenance, providing fuel to public transportation using fuel cells, and electric car charging.
February 10th, 2026: The XXV Winter Olympiad opens in Chamonix, France.
February 23rd, 2026: In the wake of the development in Human Cloning, the United Nations, in cooperation with other international organizations, creates the International Organization for the Regulation of Human Cloning, or I.O.R.H.C. for short. Although the new organization doesn't condemn the practice of cloning humans, it promises to “keep a close eye on the development of this new science.”
March 19th, 2026: The Spanish, Italian, German, French and Dutch prime ministers meet in Düsseldorf, Germany, in what’s now known as the Düsseldorf Agreement (or Düsseldorf Treason) setting a deadline for the commencement of federalization talks within the EU. The five prime ministers agree to the unification of the different European militaries and police agencies into a unified European military command and a FBI-like European agency. Deschanel, however, ensures that French “Force de Frappe” are treated differently and remain in French hands.
April 1st, 2026: German, French and Belgian researchers, led by German Tom Schneider, announce that they are capable of “curing” AIDS using advanced stem stell transfusion technology. The treatment, first anticipated in 2007 and developed throughout the 2010s, is a full cure, but very inaccessible. It costs over $120,000 per patient, and requires the medical team to find a very difficult donor match each time. For most AIDS patients worldwide, who are generally poor, a better hope is drugs like Erinle, which do not cure AIDS, but mitigate its symptoms. Nevertheless, the discovery is hailed as a major step forward in AIDS research. Schneider's team followed up on his 2012 work in stem cells and AIDS.
May 5th 2026: Yvette Cooper's Labour government fails to be re-elected after controversy surrounding transport and regional reform. In it's place, the Conservative's have a majority government of 38 with Neil Fraser, the former Herbert Education Secretary as Prime Minister.
May 5th, 2026: On the day that Yvette Cooper's government loses power to Neil Fraser's Conservative Party, a further blow to the Labour Party is given when a further referendum on the AV system is rejected in favour of First Past the Post. Fraser wins a narrow majority of 38 on AV, the last under AV. Four general elections (2015, 2020, 2022 and 2026) were held under the system.
May 30th, 2026: President Castro of the United States signs the AIDS Recovery and Purchase Act into law, granting USAID the power to use $1.1 billion to buy Erinle and distribute it throughout the world. Erinle, sometimes called the “miracle” drug, was first developed in 2021 and is over 98% effective both at stopping AIDS developing from HIV and at stopping AIDS symptoms from killing patients. However, the drug is still expensive, costing close to a thousand dollars per year.
June 1st, 2026: As the bad times of the 2010s begin to drift into the past, the 2020s see more gritty, realistic takes. The humor is brighter, and as an international optimism begins to arise from problems of the 2010s being dealt with, the moral tales of art in this period are generally classic tales of overcoming triumph, or struggling to the very end. It also sees a revival in “twist endings”, likely inspired by movies such as The Sixth Sense, released at the very tale end of the nineties.
June 2nd, 2026: Ethiopian dictator Meles Zenawi is assassinated by one of his generals in a coup attempt, plunging the country into chaos. Several rival generals seize control of the provinces, while the capitol is held by the coup leader, Aman Gabre, who claims to be following the will of the people. However, when he begins to purge the the capitol of the press corps, killing over 200 journalists, whatever support he May have had among the people evaporates. This marks the beginning of the Second Ethiopian Civil War.
June 5th, 2026: An emergency meeting of the Alliance for Democracy, held in Lagos, fails to reach consensus on the situation in Ethiopia. The East African Federation wants to take direct military action, as it is worried that the fighting may spill over onto its territory. However, Nigeria opposes intervention, saying that the situation is too chaotic to understand whom the League should support, while South Africa takes the position that Ethiopia's troubles are Ethiopia's problem.
June 29th, 2026: Raids throughout Brazil by the Departamento de Polícia Federal result in the arrests of over 400 suspected drug traffickers. Brazil's drug problem has increased markedly in recent years. Marijuana use has increased in middle-class youth, while crack use has increased in the favelas (slums).
July 2nd, 2026: With over a dozen MREV branches opened up all over México, it's founder Carmen Arteaga vows to run for her districts seat in the Chamber of Deputies as a PRD candidate in the 2027 Midterm Elections. As a sign of bipartisanship, she publicly endorses Chihuahuense PAN candidate Hiram Romney, himself the founder of MREV's Chihuahua chapter.
The twenty-third FIFA World Cup concludes in Spain/Portugal. Germany was the champion for the third tournament in a row, beating out Spain 1-0. An estimated 750 million people watch the final.
July 4th, 2026: America marks the 250th Anniversary since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, marking their break from the British Empire and 250 years of extraordinary history. Throughout the country, events are held to mark the event, with many historical re-enactments taking place, from the Boston Tea Party to the Battle of Gettsyburg. President Julian Castro himslef attends the celebrations in Washington, and many people note the spike in his approval rating to 70% around this time, the highest he would achieve while President.
July 5th, 2026: At the conclusion of their 17th annual summit, BRIC leaders announce that they will no longer meet on a yearly basis. The stated reason given by Brazil, India, China, and Russia is that the four nations believe they can best collaborate through other international bodies. However, international commentators attribute the action to a growing lack of common goals and interests.
July 29th, 2026: After a year of heated battles and debates over Social Security reform, President Castro suffers the harshest legislative defeat of his presidency when the Social Security Reform Act is defeated by a wide margin on the Senate floor. Many progressives voted against the bill, as well as conservative Republicans, in a rare moment of bipartisanship. Historians point to this defeat as the motivating factor for the massive GOP gains in Congress in 2026, Castro's electoral loss in 2028, and the schism between progressives and moderate-conservatives in the Democratic Party in 2032.
August 13th, 2026: The Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua are combined into the autonomous region of Papua, which is granted its own devolved legislative assembly and special cultural protections to preserve New Guinea's languages and cultures. Over 25 languages have become extinct in New Guinea since 2000, and Indonesia's government has begun to oppose the trend.
September 9th, 2026: Prince Edward of Wales, the second-in-line to the British throne and son of William, Prince of Wales and his wife Catherine, enrolls at Eton College, the prestigious British boy’s school.
October 2nd, 2026: Seiji Maehara, the longest-serving Prime Minister of Japan in Japanese history, retires. He is replaced by Foreign Minister Daisuke Matsumoto.
October 14th, 2026: In baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series.
November 3rd, 2026:U.S. Midterm Elections; Republicans make massive gains in both houses of Congress in response to discontent with the Castro administration's policies and Democratic infighting. However, they fail to attain a majority in either chamber due to the depth of the Democratic supermajorities.
House of Representatives Democratic: 241 seats (-67) Republican: 194 seats
Senate Democratic: 53 seats (-8) Republican: 47 seats
November 15th, 2026: Two coordinated car bombs kill 89 people in Oran, Algeria. The revolutionary Islamist group Al-Jat Harir claims responsibility.
November 17th, 2026: Unable to perform his duties for health reasons, King Kardam II of Bulgaria (born 2 December 1962) abdicates exactly one year after his ascension to the throne. Having suffered severe head trauma during an automobile accident in 2008, the King’s health remained precarious. He is succeeded by his eldest son Prince Boris Turnovski of Bulgaria (born 12 October 1997) who assumes the regnal name of King Boris IV.
November 18th, 2026: Japanese-Brazilian baseball players Luiz and Paolo Gushiken are drafted by the Fukuoka Hawks of the Nippon Professional League in Japan. The first Japanese-Brazilians to play in the NPL, the Gushikens are widely known for their performances in the 2025 World Baseball Classic, and are quite popular in Brazil.
November 20th, 2026: A charter flight containing the three members of Occidental band Solfire goes down in a storm over the South Atlantic, and all eleven passengers are presumed dead. The band members, all at age 24 at the time of their death, had forever changed music with their creation of the Occidental style. A posthumus album, entitled Jeesh and Friends, becomes the most downloaded album of all time on iTunes.
November 21st, 2026: The Seattle Sounders FC win the Major League Soccer Cup over Sporting Kansas City, 4-1.
December 3rd, 2026: Former Mexican President Miranda Hernandez is elected as UN Secretary-General for a five year term. She had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2026 for her continuing efforts to combat the drug trade in Latin America. The former Secretary-General, Angela Merkel, retired at the end of her term.
December 19th, 2026: When asked in a television interview about why her government fell at the 2026 election, former Prime Minister Yvette Cooper states that the Randall Affair played a huge role in undermining confidence. Historians would later liken her political downfall to that of Harold Macmillan in 1963.
December 24th, 2026: The Sagrada Familia cathedral is completed in Barcelona, Spain.
January 13th, 2027: The last of three solar power stations is completed in the Namib Desert. The third, an expansion and refitting of the previously existing Gobabeb plant (completed 2004), provides over 300 MW of power, and they collectively supply 2100 MW of power, of which 1200 MW will go to South Africa, which helped finance the project.
January 19th 2027: Prime Minister Fraser announces he will massively increase the energy reform project's initiated by the Cooper and Herbert governments.
January 30th, 2027: Florida Senator Marco Rubio declares his candidacy for the Republican nomination.
February 4th, 2027: Illinois Governor Adam Kinzinger declares his candidacy for the Republican nomination.
February 11th, 2027: Senator Kristi Noem (R-SD) declares her candidacy for the Republican nomination.
May 2nd, 2027: At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Venus In-Situ Explorer (VISE) is launched. First conceived in in 2003, and dormant until 2021, VISE will arrive in orbit around Venus in September, after a 32 million mile journey. The prope consists of three parts - the Venus Orbital Observation and Coordination Platform (VOOCOP), the Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle and Transporter (AEVET), and the Surface Crater Laboratory (SCL). The Surface Crater Laboratory is designed to be able to survive motionless on Venus' surface for up to two weeks, while the Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle is expected to be able to float, controlled remotely, for up to a year. VOOCOOP is scheduled to remain in orbit until at least 2032 at a distance of 720 km from the surface.
May 5th, 2027: Referendum held regarding restoration of a figurehead monarchy in Bavaria on the state level. An area where neo-monarchist sentiment is high, fifty six percent of Bavarians agree to the change.
May 7th, 2027: A sniper kills Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelhamid Temmar in Algiers. The sniper, an unidentified man in his 20s, is kiled by police as he attempts to flee. The revolutionary Islamist group Al-Jat Harir claims responsibility.
May 8th, 2027: At President Castro's urging, the United States Congress passes the Government Standardization and Clear Communications Act, which requires that all government work and publications be completed in metric units by January 1st, 2030. Imperial units are recommended but not required, as they are already omitted in most government scientific publications. The measure passes 52-48 in the Senate and by a larger margin in the House.
May 12th, 2027: The Namibian section of the Windhoek-Cape Town high-speed rail line is completed, meeting the border near the South African town of Uppington. The South African portion is nearly 90% complete, and the final track will allow trains to travel at speeds of up to 200 km/hr.
June 15th, 2027: Meet the Press (NBC) hosts a controversial interview with French geneticist Francois Bertrand, who talks about an emerging “child architect” industry in parts of the EU, where a formal ban on the ban doesn't exist.
August 1st, 2027: Fatih Nkwocha, the daughter of Nigerian woman footballer Perpetua Nkwocha, signs a contract with newly-promoted Bundesliga club Alemannia Aachen. She would be the first woman to sign a contract with a men's Bundesliga team. The “player's licence” (Spielgenehmigung) is at first not given.
August 2nd, 2027: Alemannia Aachen files a lawsuit. On September 17, this suit lands at CAS in Switzerland, the highest sports court.
September 2nd, 2027: In the Union State, JINR announces its move from Dubna (in the outskirts of Moscow) to near the atomic test site of Semipalatinsk for safety reasons. Moscow has grown so big as to incorporate the Dubna part.
September 14th, 2027: What has become known as the “Frontier War” between the Pakistani government and Taliban forces in the Northwest Frontier, becomes a bloody stalemate. Though the military under guidance from the junta in Islamabad has made great strides in isolating the Taliban to a pocket in Waziristan. For the next few years, the combat line will remain stagnant until both sides gradually give up fighting and accept the new status quo (Taliban control of border areas near Afghanistan, Islamabad control of everywhere else).
H.R.H Princess Diana (b. 2 Nov 2015), youngest daughter of William, Prince of Wales attends an evening concert of jazz with her father’s cousin, Princess Eugenie of York. The adolescent girl is especially mesmerized by the artistry of Diana Krall, the British Columbia-born jazz pianist. Upon her return home, she begins pestering her mother the Princess of Wales for piano lessons. Not knowing if this is just a passing fancy, the Princess cautiously makes inquiries and arrangements are made. Unbeknownst to Princess Catherine, it is the beginning of a stellar career by one of the outstanding talents of the Twenty-First Century.
September 18th, 2027: The Venus In-Situ Explorer (VISA) arrives in orbit around Venus. The first major mission to Venus since the orbital Magellan probe of the 1990s, VISA consists of orbital, atmospheric, and surface components, named VOOCOP, AEVET, and SCL respectively.
September 20th, 2027: The Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle and Transporter and the Surface Crater Laboratory detach from VISA and enter Venus' atmosphere. Successful disengagement is reported, and the Surface Laboratory touches down without damage in late afternoon Houston time.
September 22nd, 2027: Munich lawyer Ludwig, Prinz von Bayern (b. 14 June 1982), the great-great grandson of the last Wittelsbach King of Bavaria Ludwig III, is crowned king in the traditional manner. He assumes the regnal name Ludwig IV.
September 29th, 2027: The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, announces in a speech to Parliament that he will step down at the end of the year. He will be succeeded by his daughter, Princess Lalla Khadija. As the last act of his reign, he will sign over his vast executive powers to the Prime Minister and the Parliament of Morocco and create “a true parliamentary democracy for the people of Morocco”. The Crown Princess is very popular among the Moroccan people, noted for her beauty and intelligence. The King's speech is greeted with widespread acclaim from both the people of Morocco and the world community. Despite their surrender of political power, the royal family will continue to exert considerable economic power in the years to come.
October 1st, 2027: An analysis of a rock on Venus sent back by the Surface Crater Laboratory of NASA's VISA mission reveals a surprising fact - the rock is chemically identical to those of Earth! After further analysis, scientists realize that the rock is a meteorite from Earth which has landed on Venus. They believe it was ejected from Earth in the K-T impact event 65 million years previously. This is the first known example of an Earthly meteorite found on another body in the Solar System.
October 9th, 2027: NASA stops receiving signals from the Surface Crater Explorer on Venus, which survived for 20 days on the planet's surface - far longer than any other probe before. Its destruction is believed to be caused by an acid rain event observed by the Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle and Transporter (AEVET).
October 10th, 2027: The CAS rules that “there is no explicit ban of women playing in men's team”, and on that grounds has to make Fatih Nkwocha eligible for Alemannia Aachen.
October 17th, 2027: Japanese general election: the DPJ-Komeito coalition wins the general election, Daisuke Matsumoto continues to serve as prime minister despite calls for him to step down after the DPJ loses its majority in the lower house. The election results are as followed: DPJ 226, YP 127, Social Credit Party 46, New Komeito 31, LDP 28, JCP 8, SDP 4, Others / non-partisan / independents 10.
October 19th, 2027: In baseball, the Houston Astros win the World Series.
October 30th, 2027: After David opened up a new market of internet entertainment, Entertainment Zone become the second major internet entertainment production group with the launch of (ez-shows.com).
November 15th, 2027: Vancouver Whitecaps FC win the Major League Soccer Cup over FC Dallas, 2-1. . They become the first Canadian team to win the MLS Cup.
November 27th, 2027: At a Cloning Facility in Paris, France, a bomb goes off, killing no one, but a few scientists are injured, and much damage occurs throughout the building as fires spread. This marks the first time a cloning facility has been specifically targeted for an attack. The perpetrator is later arrested and sentenced to prison.
December 8th, 2027: A worrying report is released by the UN Health Office. The report finds that treatment-resistant AIDS has doubled in prevalence over the last 10 years, as misapplied retroviral drugs cause the virus to mutuate into a stronger form. While the global AIDS picture is generally becoming brighter, health experts warn that the 2.1 million people with treatment-resistant HIV could become a much larger issue in coming years.
December 11th, 2027: Dr. James Omar reveals what would later be labeled 'the precursor to artificial intelligence', the Artificial Analytical Unit - nicknamed “Anna” by her designers. It can recognize most words of seven languages, and use memory of past encounters to create reasoned and 'normal' responses. Engineers and scientists around the world speculate that it's technology could be used in the military or diplomatic field if used in a human-form robot.
December 14th, 2027: On his 60th Birthday and his 10th year in office, Canadian Prime Minister Dominic LeBlanc retires as Prime Minister, saying in his final speech that he feels he has, “served Canada long enough.” He is replaced my Minister of Industries Justin Trudeau, who becomes the first son of a former Prime Minister to become Prime Minister. He quickly acquires the nickname, “Trudeau the younger.”
December 19th, 2027: Wallonian separatists detonate five bombs simultaneously across Brussels killing 34 people and injuring 142. Among the injured are Queen Mathilde who receives minor cuts from flying shrapnel.
December 28th, 2027: In an accident eerily like the one that took her mother's life, Her Royal Highness, Princess Caroline of Monaco and Hanover lost her life in Klosters, Switzerland after suffering a stroke while driving her Maserati. She is succeeded by her son Prince Andrea Casiraghi-Grimaldi.
January 1st, 2028: As part of a negotiated settlement spearheaded by the Alliance for Democracy, the Morocco-Western Sahara dispute is finally put to rest. Western Sahara agrees to relinquish its claims to independence and become an autonomous province of Morocco. The Alliance for Democracy is applauded for its diplomatic efforts, especially those efforts of the President of South Africa, who is personally credited for leading the negotiations and bolstering the Alliance's standing on both the African and global geopolitical stages.
January 2nd, 2028: AVEMEX announces it's Plan 2040, with intended extensions to the cities of Puerto Vallarta, Tepic, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Saltillo and Monterrey.
January 4th, 2028: Adam Kinzinger narrowly defeats Marco Rubio in the Iowa caucuses.
January 25th, 2028: The military junta led by General Mohamed al Zahari* finalizes covert plans to fund insurgent groups in India's Kashmir and Jammu provinces, in an attempt to wrestle control of the region from India and to distract the restless population from Pakistan's internal problems, including sporadic terror attacks by religious extremists and overall decline in the standard-of-living.
February 3rd, 2028: Britney Spears passes away at a Los Angeles mental hospital at the age of 47. In her deteriorated mental state, Spears was convinced it was thirty years previous and that she was still “America's pop princess”.
February 14th, 2028: After a four years of successful supersonic flight by the private business airline L'Atlantique, Boeing officially unveils its supersonic transport to capture demand from international airlines. The aircraft, dubbed the Boeing SST-8, is expected to fly by 2034 and ushered into commercial service with launch customer Intercontinental Air Lines by 2035.
February 19th, 2028: In Taiwan, incumbent president Jay Chou (DPP) wins the presidential election against Yunlin magistrate Chang Chia-Chun (KMT) by a thin margin of 0.9%. Chang refuses to concede, but the Supreme Court upholds the election results. Nevertheless, for the first time in 12 years, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party loses its majority in the Legislative Yuan.
Republic of China legislative election, 2028 Kuomintang 54 Democratic Progressive Party 42 Non-Partisan Solidarity Union 6 Taiwanese Patriotic Party 5 Labor Party 3 Independents 3 Incumber Speaker: Liu Chien-kuo (DPP) Speaker-elect: Tsai Wu-Hong (KMT)
February 29th, 2028: An international team of Indian, American, East African, and South African researchers declares that they have found the “holy grail” of modern medicine - an AIDS vaccine. Based on a three-year study they conducted in East Africa, the vaccine they developed prevented 99.35% of patients from contracting HIV, even after repeated contact with infected patients. Between the new vaccine, AV-HALT drugs like Erinle which stop AIDS deaths, and stem stell transfusion treatments, experts are optimistically predicting that the global AIDS pandemic will end within 10 years. The team, led by Francois Venter and Rajiv Koronake, are awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2030.
March 5th, 2028: On Venus, the Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle and Transporter (AEVET) observes a volcanic eruption by a volcano named Satan's Fountain by NASA scientists. The eruption of Satan's Fountain is extensively observed by AEVET, and provides valuable information about extraterrestrial volcanism. AEVET also takes a famous photograph of the eruption (estimated to have been seen by two billion people by 2030) which becomes nearly as well known as Apollo's “Blue Marble” photograph.
March 14th, 2028: Hong Kong writer Marcus Aurelius Lo is severely injured in New York City after being shot by an angry Chinese. The incident does not remove Lo from the HK Independence Movement, but instead makes him a hero.
April 1st, 2028: Famed British writer J.K. Rowling reveals, in an interview with The Guardian, that she is working on writing a Harry Potter encyclopedia, which will “include a copy of The History of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot.” While some fans believe this to be a terrible April Fool's Day joke, Rowling confirms her comments a few days later.
April 5th, 2028: All Nippon Spacecraft (ANS) begins selling tickets for space tours to the moon, scheduled to begin from 2035.
April 16th, 2028: Southwest Airlines shocks the financial world by acquiring a 60% stake in Intercontinental Air Lines, the United States' most prominent international airline. This gives Southwest a lucrative gateway to the global travel market, and Intercontinental a strategic domestic source of passengers to feed its international flights.
May 2nd, 2028: Sony announces that the production of DVD-Players is going to be discontinued on January 1st, 2030. Samsung, Apple, and Fuji-Toshiba follow suit.
May 3rd, 2028: The Brazilian aircraft carrier NAe São Paulo is slated for decommissioning in 2030. The ship, first commissioned in 1960 by the French Navy, was the oldest carrier still active. Brazil announces that it intends to build two new carriers to replace the NAe São Paulo.
May 30th, 2028: The nine nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council announce a plan to move towards a common currency, the riyal, by 2035. They are already quite heavily economically integrated. The growth in oil consumption is beginning to slow as Western nations make the shift to electric and hydrogen fuel sources. Additionally, a new generation of globally connected youth is coming of age, and some countries in the GCC have experienced some turmoil.
June 4th, 2028: A narrow 51-47 victory over Kristi Noem in California clinches the Republican nomination for Marco Rubio.
June 8th, 2028: The Farm at Lake Michigan, a 73-story vertical farm in Chicago, is opened to the public. Capable of feeding 38,000 people year-round, the building is given LEED Platinum status for its many inovations. The $240 million building is mostly powered by a series of wind turbines, solid waste disposal and solar panels, draws its fresh water from both Lake Michigan and sewage greywater, combines hydroponics, drip irrigation, intensive farming and aquaponics, and employs over 500 people full-time to run. It also includes tours and a farmers market. The food grown will be distributed to nearby grocery stores at extremely low prices, given the lack of need for transport and the minmal chance of spoilage. It will cost only $2.1 million each year to run, and is projected to produce crops worth up to ten times that much.
June 10th, 2028: Brazil and India announce that they will work collaboratively to build two supercarriers, one for each country. Plans will be purchased from France and Russia, or developed domestically. The twin carriers are expected to enter into service in 2032.
June 13th, 2028: In a referendum that some historians consider the high water mark of neo-monarchism in early twenty-first century Europe, voters in the state of Saxony approve the restoration of the monarchy at the state level. Alexander Prinz von Sachsen-Gessaphe (b. 12 February 1954) is enthroned in Dresden as King Alexander of Saxony.
June 23rd, 2028: On his 80th birthday, Justice Clarence Thomas announces his retirement from the Supreme Court of the United States. President Castro announces that “One of the great jurists of our time must be replaced by someone of equal greatness.”
July 1st, 2028: Julian Castro announces that he will nominate Ted Cruz, Attorney General of Texas, to fill Justice Thomas' seat. Cruz, a center-right Republican, would be the second Hispanic to sit on the Supreme Court. He graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude, and had run unsuccessfully for a Senate seat in 2012.
July 9th, 2028: In Japan, the DPJ-Komeito coalition loses its majority in the upper house.
July 25th-28th, 2028: Republican National Convention; Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Governor Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) are nominated for President and Vice President, respectively, in Los Angeles.
July 29th, 2028: Just before Congress breaks for their summer recess, Ted Cruz's nomination to the Supreme Court is confirmed by the US Senate, 53-47. Many Democrats had felt uncomfortable voting for a conservative, but felt compelled to go along with President Castro's wishes. President Castro, a moderate himself, believed firmly in respecting the beliefs of the previous holder of the seat. Mr. Cruz is inaugurated the next day.
The members of the Supreme Court at this time are as follows, ranked by seniority (liberal wing bold, conservative italics):
Chief Justice: Barack Obama Associate Justice: Samuel Alito Associate Justice: Sonia Sotomayor Associate Justice: Elena Kagan Associate Justice: Theodore Ullyot Associate Justice: Diane Wood Associate Justice: Jeannie Suk Associate Justice: Nicole Stelle Garnett Associate Justice: Theodore Cruz
August 6th, 2028: The Manchester Accords, a collective agreement between North Sea nations to share energy and defend itself from “hostile pricing” is reached.
August 9th-27th, 2028: The 2028 Summer Olympic Games are held in Chicago, USA. The tournament closes with the United States having won the most medals, followed by Russia.
August 18th, 2028: A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes off the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, 110 miles southeast of Managua. The Nicaraguan capital suffers devastating damage, with 65,000 dying in the initial wave. The resulting tsunami kills thousands more along the coasts of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, and El Salvador, with damaging effects also felt in Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador.
September 18th, 2028: Former US President Kristen Gillibrand releases her autobiography, Trials & Triumphs. The book covers her life from her youth growing up in New York, to her early days in the US House of Representatives, her career in the US Senate, and of course the eight years she spent as the first woman President of the United States of America. The book is a massive success, and begins to establish Gillibrand's reputation as “the best President to serve so far in the 21st Century.”
October 13th, 2028: In baseball, the Chicago White Sox win the World Series.
November 6th, 2028: President Castro is defeated by Marco Rubio and Adam Kinzinger. In the congressional races, the GOP captures both houses of Congress, marking the first time the party has tricameral control in Washington since 2012.
Senator Ryan Kirkpatrick is re-elected from Illinois with 61% of the vote. Polls from a year earlier had shown him with approval ratings near 80%, but his numbers dropped after he revealed that he was an atheist. However, his strong campaign and impressive legislative resume helped support him, and he was re-elected with strong numbers. This makes him the first openly atheist Senator in the history of the United States. Senator Kirkpatrick had become well known for his green energy plan, which called for heavy investment into R&D for fusion, hydrogen fuel-cell, and other energy sources. The Green Energy Investment Act, costing 9 billion dollars, had passed in 2026, and progress had already been reported in achieving cold fusion.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) / Governor Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) - 279 EV - 50.4% PV President Julian Castro (D-TX) / Vice President Tim Ryan (D-OH) - 259 EV - 47.9% PV
House of Representatives Republican: 225 seats (+31) Democratic: 211 seats
Senate Republican: 51 seats (+4) Democratic: 49 seats
November 20th, 2028: The New England Revolution win the Major League Soccer Cup over the Montreal Impact, 3-2.
December 8th, 2028: Fatih Nkwocha is nominated for the Nigerian men's national football team. But FIFA/CAS rules that she is no longer eligible because she has already played for the women's national team, which thus is viewed as a separate entity.
December 28th, 2028: On Venus, the Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle and Transporter (AEVET) sends data back to Earth indicating that there are amino acids in the upper atmosphere of Venus. The discovery of Earth-like amino acids is a landmark event in astrobiology, and spurs greater interest in missions to potential life-sources like Europa.
January 3rd, 2029: Following Julian Castro's defeat in the 2028 presidential election, infighting begins to brew within the Democratic Party between the progressive and moderate-conservative wings. This split is first highlighted during the swearing in of the 121st Congress, when moderate Representative Melinda Hayes (D-TN) attacks House Minority Leader Linda Sanchez (D-CA), disagreeing with the party caucus' proposed liberal-leaning agenda.
January 20th, 2029: On the same day as Marco Rubio's inauguration as President of the United States, former President Vladimir Putin of Russia passes away after suffering a massive stroke at the age of 76. Putin is remembered as a highly controversial figure, viewed by Russians as the man who returned Russia to its former glory as a great power, but to some international observers as a threat to stability in Europe and Asia with the establishment of the Union State during his second presidency.
February 24th, 2029: A unique meeting is held at the White House, in which President Marco Rubio meets with all his living predecessors as President, including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Kristen Gillibrand and Julian Castro. This marks the first time the seven US Presidents have been alive at the same time.
March 5th, 2029: The United Nations General Assembly sets up a temporary body to oversee what Secretary-General Miranda Hernandez calls “the largest joint effort in the history of humankind.” The new AIDS Vaccine Distribution Project will begin on January 1st, 2030, and involves over 600,000 health workers from 139 different countries. They aim to inoculate over 30% of the world's population with the AIDS vaccine by 2031, and over 50% of the world's nine billion people by 2034. Meanwhile, production of the vaccine has been ramped up to meet the huge demand which will begin on January 1st, 2030. Funding will be provided by the UN itself, helped by special donations from a number of countries. In India, a .1% national sales tax increase will go towards the project, known as the “AIDS tax”. Similar revenue measures have been passed in a number of countries.
March 12th, 2029: After several years of unprecedented growth in the aftermath of the Méxican Drug War, dubbed by economists as the “Second Mexican Miracle,” México experiences a mild economic downturn. It is severe enough to cause President Aureloes's approval ratings to take a beating. PAN Party President Jhonatan García takes advantage of this turn of events and paints the downturn as the fault of Aureoles and the PRD, blaming it on the PRD's “incessant need for wasteful spending.”
March 20th, 2029: President Marco Rubio presents his legislative agenda to Congress, calling for a substantial decrease in spending from the Gillibrand and Castro administrations. While many fear a dismantlement of many successful programs and projects, Rubio states that he wants to “reform, not repeal government,” apparently accepting of the new political reality of larger government.
March 23rd, 2029: The monthlong 2029 World Baseball Classic closes in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The Americans emerge as the champions for the first time, beating out Japan for the title. In third place are China, and rounding out the heap in fourth place are South Korea.
March 30th, 2029: Sociologists report that cigarette smoking is at an all time low in Western countries. Increasingly, the habit is viewed as dirty and “uncool”, while cigar and joint use rates have risen. Only 3.2% of Americans regularly smoke cigarettes, down from 20.8% in 2006. One state, Connecticut, has banned the smoking of cigarettes entirely, though it has not yet instituted a fine for use, only for importation.
April-May, 2029: Parliamentary elections are held in India, with over 750 million people voting. Prime Minister Surjaa Chakravorty is widely popular throughout India, and her NDP party is predicted to gain seats, although not in a landslide. During her premiership the threat of the Naxalites has decreased almost to nonexistence, and educational standards in India have improved. However, some attribute these successes to her predecessor, Rahul Gandhi. Nevertheless, continued strong economic growth (with her decentralization policies cited as a cause by economists) have led to continued popularity for Chakravorty.
The new Prakarita Kriya Party (PKP) is also poised to make gains. Their moderate policies have won them supporters among the middle-class Hindu right and with conservative lower class voters. They are well known for their strong anti-Pakistani rhetoric, while simultaneously denouncing Hindu extremists. In addition, they want to privatize many Indian banks and decrease environmental regulation “in order to open the door to increased economic growth.”
After the election, seats in the Lok Sabha are apportioned as follows:
New Democratic Party of India (NDP): 289 seats Prakarita Kriya Party (PKP): 142 seats Left Front: 51 seats Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): 21 seats Congress Party: 19 seats Independents: 11 seats Anglo-Indian Representatives: 2 seats
The government is formed by the NDP, the Anglo-Indian Representatives and several independents, controlling 298 seats. In the wake of their second shellacking in a row (and reduced to their base in Uttar Pradesh), the Congress Party announces it will be joining the Left Front. The BJP decides not to attempt to broaden its appeal, instead preferring to remain a vocal minority.
Government: 298 seats PKP: 142 seats Left Front: 70 seats BJP: 21 seats Independents: 4 seats
April 13th, 2029: Apophis makes a near-earth encounter, but contrary to predictions of a 2036 collision, the asteroid is sent into the outer solar system.
April 15th, 2029: Prolific author (and later activist) Stephen King dies in his sleep, at the age of 79.
May 1st, 2029: The Second Ethiopian Civil War ends, with General Tesfaye Kidan seizing Addis Ababa and killing General Gabre, bringing a conclusion to the city's two-month siege. General Kidan spends his first several weeks in power eliminating allies of his former foe. He had been supported financially by the East African Federation after he struck a deal with them in the fall of 2026. As he controlled southern Ethiopia, he promised to protect their border in return for their support.
May 6th, 2029: In Japan, New Komeito withdraws from the ruling coaltion.
May 8th, 2029: Longtime Chadian President Idriss Déby dies at the age of 78 or 79. He has held power since 1990, making him one of the longest-lasting dictators in the world at present, although his forces have rarely, if ever, controlled the whole country. His army fought off major assaults on the capitol, N'Djamena, in 2006, 2008, 2015, and 2025. During his tenure, Chad has been described as a “failed state”, which currently has a life expectancy of just over 50. With Déby's death, it is unclear whether his party, the Patriotic Salvation Movement, can hold power in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. His Vice President, Gontchome Shawa, assumes power.
May 13th, 2029: Matsumoto's government is defeated by a no-confidence motion, 245-232. Matsumoto dissolves the lower house.
May 16th, 2029: The world is shocked when a Black Market organization known as New Worlds Salesmen is uncovered by the media. The group runs throughout the United States, as well as other countries where cloning remains illegal. The group is known for both cloning humans and selling them to those who can afford them, as well as cloning humans for the sole purpose of later harvesting them for their organs. In response to the discovery, US President Marco Rubio and his administration promise a “severe crackdown” on all such illegal operations.
May 18th, 2029: In what historians later call the death-knell of neo-monarchism in Germany, voters in the states of Baden-Wuerttemburg, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt defeat monarchy restoration schemes by heavy margins. In June, voters in the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Niedersachsen also soundly defeat monarchy restoration referenda.
May 19th-22nd, 2029: The New York Stock Exchange drops 14%, ushering in a short, but sharp recession in the wake of a decade of increased government spending. President Rubio, who maintained a healthy 60% approval rating since inauguration, experiences a sudden drop in popularity due to the American public's knee-jerk response to the recession.
May 21st, 2029: General Kidan of Ethiopia suffers a stroke. The minor stroke, which he quickly recovers from, is believed to have damaged his paramyglia; in any case, he quickly goes, as one Western observer puts it, “batshit insane.” His first act is to declare Christianity the state religion of Ethiopia, which angers Ethiopia's large Muslim population. However, two days later, he changes his mind, declaring that Ethiopia shall be an Islamic state following sharia law. In response to large protests against this capriciousness, he goes on state television to announce “that as I can't please any of you, I May as well start trying.” Calling himself the Son of God, the crazed leader rambles for over three hours describing a new religion, based off of Roman paganism and Judaism that he apparently created on the spot. The speech is not well received.
May 23rd, 2029: General Tesfaye Kidan of Ethiopia declares war on Israel, saying that “There can only be one Jewish homeland, and it is in my country.” Two hours before Ethiopian Air Force planes are due to take off to attack Israel (ignoring the protests of Sudan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, whose airspace they must overfly), General Kidan is killed by his aides, led by 29-year-old Lieutenant Birhanu Bayeh.
May 24th, 2029: Lieutenant Bayeh announces to the world that Ethiopia will become a democracy, and schedules elections for September 1st. He also announces the formation of a party (Ethiopian Democracy and Peace Party), and his candidacy for President.
June 12th, 2029: A coup occurs in Chad, soon after the death of long-time President Idriss Déby. His former Vice-President, President Gontchome Shawa, is ousted and flees to Nigeria. Meanwhile, General Japhet Malloum takes power, and appoints himself leader of the Patriotic Salvation Front. Meanwhile, several rebel armies, led by Sudanese group PAS (Sudanese Patriotic Army) say they are gearing up for an assault on the capitol.
June 17th, 2029: Japanese general election: the ruling Democratic Party is defeated by the YP-SCP-LDP coaltion. Matsumoto loses his own seat in the election. The election results are as followed: DPJ 167, YP 150, Social Credit Party 85, New Komeito 33, LDP 21, JCP 10, SDP 5, Issuikai 2, Others / non-partisan / independents 13.
June 27th, 2029: Shinjiro Koizumi, president of Your Party and son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
June 29th, 2029: The Supreme Court issues it's opinions for it's spring session, in doing so ruling on what will be two of the most controversial of the Obama Court. In Jeffries v. Support America's Future PAC, the Court overturned Citizens United and Buckley; writing for the majority (6-3), Justice Sonia Sotomayor opined in her summary:
“Corporations may be regarded as persons in some regards. This is not at question. The issue before us is the extent to which those things we attach to individuals we also attach to these corporate bodies. That extent, however, has never and should never extend to the integral rights associated with citizenship of voting in elections and running for office. Thus it must be found that a corporation's right to free speech need not necessarily be allowed to exist to the same extent as that of the individual with regards to 'electioneering.'
“This Court must also challenge the precedent that has existed that absolutely equates political spending with any other kind of speech and thus deserving of unlimited protection. The expression of the kind and scope we are concerned with here today is of a very particular nature: it exists, purely and solely, not merely to purport an opinion or thought but to influence in a most deliberate and direct way the elections of our peers to public office. Such elections command a respect and an expectation of protection. They are the means by which the people express their collective will and exercise their power as a society, and even the appearance of corruption and the accompanying mistrust the public will place in those governing institutions cannot constitute anything but the most compelling interest. Thus by all standards of scrutiny there is an incumbent right of Congress to regulate the manner by which electoral campaigns should take place, including the financing of electioneering.”
In McToole and Adams v. Texas, the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States; on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause, the Due Process Clause, and the separation of church and state, the Court drew a distinction between civil and religious marriage. Writing for the majority (5-3, 1 abstaining), Chief Justice Obama ruled
“Religious institutions are free, as is their right, to hold any such definition of marriage as they wish, and to hold such private ceremonies as they will administer accordingly. However, such actions cannot have any bearing on the civil act of marriage. This is a partnership recognized by society and the law, earning those involved a distinct status in the eyes of the law with regards many matters and further conferring various benefits that government has granted in recognition of such a partnership. Further, we can find nothing whatsoever that would justify the consideration of same sex relationships as a matter of social or public concern or require it be distinguished from opposite sex relationships in any substantive way. Marriage being a fundamental right in our nation, by this court's own terms, sufficient justification for denial of such a right on the basis of gender can not be found.
“Therefore, this court is compelled to find that to deny same sex couples access to the institution of civil marriage is to violate the separation of church and state by using public policy to enforce religious definitions; it violates the guarantee of equal protection by failing to meet any standards of scrutiny as to the withholding of such a right; and that due process is denied by the arbitrary refusal of both marriage itself and of the associated legal, social and financial benefits it entails. Thus the Court must strike down all prohibitions on the marriage of same sex couples”. June 30th, 2029: In the aftermath of McToole and Adams vs. the State of Texas, far-right groups, including the remnants of S.O.U.L., call for massive protests across the US. Approximately two million protestors turn out across the United States on July 4th against gay marriage, while approximately two million appear at counter-rallies. Meanwhile, armed former S.O.U.L. members break into 6 different gay wedding ceremonies across the country and open fire. 63 are killed in what far-right terrorist groups call the “Day of Warning.” In a statement, they announce that similar attacks will take place at as many gay weddings as possible.
Japanese-Brazilian baseball players and twin brothers Luiz and Paolo Gushiken are traded from the Fukuoka Hawks of the Nippon Professional League to the Atlanta Braves of American Major League Baseball. Luiz, a versatile shortstop, and Paolo, a pitcher, are the first Brazilians to play in the MLB. The trade sparks considerable interest in baseball in Brazil. The two young men led their Fukuoka Hawks to the 2028 Championship in Japan.
Georg-Friedrich, Prinz von Preussen finishes his term as President of Germany and returns to private life.
July 1st, 2029: The first segment of the CRN is officially inaugurated between New York and Atlanta. Trains travel at speeds approaching 400 mph and fares costing about as much as a plane ticket.
Hannelore Kraft (b. 12 June 1961), former SDP Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia state assumes the office of President of Germany.
July 6th, 2029: In the wake of the “Day of Warning”, another federal crackdown on right-wing terror begins. Over 100 violent extremists are arrested, and 3 more wedding massacres are nipped in the bud. However, at St. Phillips in the Hills Church (Tuscon, Arizona), 18 men, women, and children are killed when five former S.O.U.L. members attack the ceremony. Many gay couples begin to encourage wedding guests to arrive armed, which leads to the shooting death of R.SOUL (Real S.O.U.L., a remnant group) member Jerry Silvestre on July 14th. Polls find that 61% of Americans support the court’s decision in McToole.
July 10th-15th, 2029: Fifth Battle of N'Djamena: A coalition of rebel groups in Chad, composed of the Sudanese Patriotic Army (PAS), the Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD), Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) and New Vulcan Army (VNA), launch a major attack on the capitol, N'Djamena. In six days of heavy fighting, the coalition, known as the Chadian Democratic Front (FDP) manage to seize the city and expel the junta government led by General Japhet Malloum. Malloum flees to the hinterlands and starts a rebellion, backed by his Patriotic Salvation Movement (FPS).
July 12th, 2029: 32 year-old Indian writer Kumaraswamy Pulavar publishes his first novel, The Moon Outshines the Stars. The novel is unique in that there are three variants, all written by the author, in Tamil, English, and Hindi. Pulavar is fluent in seven languages, and sets to work writing the novel in the other four; Bengali, Farsi, French, and Russian. This multi-lingual process becomes a trademark of Pulavar, and provides endless fodder for critics as they compare wording. The Moon Outshines the Stars quickly becomes India's best-selling book of all time, surpassing the Harry Potter series.
July 14th, 2029: Indonesia holds a presidential election. Akbar Salim of the Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle is elected to the post of President, and will serve until 2034. Salim was endorsed by outgoing and extremely popular President Anas Urbaningrum.
July 29th, 2029: With the entire baseball world holding its breath, Portland Athletics third baseman Ryan Timmons hits in his 57th consecutive game, breaking Joe Dimaggio's “unbreakable” record, with a walk off single in the 9th against the Boston Red Sox. His streak would later stop at 61 games.
August 13th, 2029: The Rubio Administration, in cooperation with the FBI and the CIA, in response to the recent uncovery of the underground cloning movement in the USA, launches the start of the Initiative Against Illegal Cloning, which promises to “Persecute all those acting in defiance of the law,” specifically the Black Market organization the New World Salesemen. Though the Initiative gains much support from Americans, critics on both side argue that the move comes “too late”, or that this will be a repeat of the “War on Drugs.”
August 20th, 2029: Right-wing violence has calmed down in the wake of the crackdown following the McToole case. However, Scott Williamson, leader of R.SOLAG states in a radio address that “This is merely the calm before the storm. The heavenly thunder shall rain down upon the accursed, and the world shall see our might.”
August 27th, 2029: General elections are held in Namibia. In an upset, Percy Montgomery of the Rally for Democracy and Progress is elected to the post of President, and will serve until 2034. Former President Ngurare, who remains immensely popular, chose not to stand for a third term, and his chosen successor from SWAPO, Heiko Nyamo, had unrevealed marital issues. Montgomery is the first White African leader of Namibia in the nation's history, and the first non-SWAPO president since independence. Montgomery, a former rugby player who got into politics in the 2010s, promises to be a President for all Namibians, and focuses on ending the AIDS epidemic once and for all.
September 20th, 2029: R.SOUL’s plot is uncovered and the conspirators arrested. They had planned to destroy the CRN network at three points along the route (intending to derail the trains and kill thousands), while simultaneously bomb Planned Parenthood’s world headquarters in Washington, D.C. using a truck bomb. Two gunmen were also at hand to spread chaos after the bombing. Scott Williamson, the group’s leader, is among those arrested.
September 1st, 2029: Former Lieutenant Birhanu Bayeh of Ethiopia is elected President with 71.2% of the vote over several rivals in a vote which international observers deem “free and fair.” President Bayeh, only 30 years old, declares that his first act as President will be to supervise a Constitutional Convention to draft a new Constitution for Ethiopia.
September 24th, 2029: The FBI, in cooperation with local police forces, as part of the Initiative Against Illegal Cloning, conducts several raids into illegal cloning facilities in such cities as New York City, Detroit, Miami and Chicago, among others. Millions of dollars of equipment are seized, and dozens of arrests are made. President Rubio himself would praise the day as “the first victory”, but those in support of legalization of human cloning claim the the President's actions in recent months will do “more harm than good.”
October 1st, 2029: Far West Theater, an animation group, launches a new website, styled similarly to the recent successes of internet series sites. It quickly becomes one of the largest websites on the internet.
October 2nd, 2029: In the 2029 Canadian Federal Election, Prime Minister Justine Trudeau loses to Conservative John Baird, who manages to form a minority government. In response, Trudeau vows to stay on as Leader of the Opposition, much to the dismay of some Liberals.
October 12th, 2029: In baseball, the San Diego Padres win the World Series.
October 23rd, 2029: King George VII dies of renal failure a few days shy of his 81st birthday. Deeply depressed after the death of his beloved wife Camilla, the king dies on the sixth anniversary of her death. William, Prince of Wales ascends the British throne taking the regnal name William V.
October 31st, 2029: The State Funeral of King George VII is held at Westminster Abbey attended by Kings, Presidents and Prime Ministers. The day is marred that evening at 11:45 PM when three bombs planted in the basement of the Goring Hotel explode simultaneously. Killed in the blast are King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, King Harald V and Queen Sonia of Norway and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Spanish Crown Prince Felipe is miraculously unscathed by the blast and heroicly carries his injured wife Princess Letizia to safety. She later makes a full recovery. King Fredrick X and Queen Mary of Denmark although present escape injury. Basque separatists claim responsibility.
November 3rd, 2029: The Moon Outshines the Stars, by Kumaraswamy Pulavar, is released in the United States and the UK. It becomes a runaway hit, and marks the beginning of large-scale cultural export from India to the Western World.
November 9th, 2029: Prince Nikolai of Denmark, (born 28 August 1999), the elder son of Prince Joachim and his former wife, Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg meets Nzinga Lowassa, daughter of the East African Federation ambassador to Norway. This occurs at a local Oslo sports bar while the prince was in town for the state funeral of King Harald V and Queen Sonia, slain in the Goring Hotel bombing.
November 17th, 2029: Toronto FC wins the Major League Soccer Cup over the New England Revolution, 2-0.
November 24, 2029: The FDA approves meat grown from stem cells, requiring it be explicitly declared. This follows 5 years after the EU did the same.
December 12th, 2029: The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve release reports showing that the “Panic of 2029” will be over by 3Q 2030. Unemployment however increases slightly to 7.1%, though it too is expected to return to pre-recession levels of around 5% by 2031.
Limited elections are held in Chad, organized by the Chadian Democratic Front, a union of six rebel groups which has taken power in N'Djamena. The leader of the Sudanese Patriotic Army, one of the component groups, is elected President. 42-year-old Abdul Wahid al Nur takes office on December 20th. The elections are characterized as “highly troubled, but encouraging” by Human Rights Watch, and despite major irregularities, are praised by the United States, Europe, India, and Egypt.
December 31st, 2029: The last DVD players are produced. The discs will remain available for years to come. At the same time, the successor to the GVD, called SCD (Super Capacity Disc) and being able to store (at least theoretically) up to 20 PB, is released.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees and Internal Conflicts releases a report on the state of former Somalia. The report characterizes Somalia as “stable but divided and horrifically mismanaged.” The report praises Somaliland for maintaining relative stability (albeit with heavy Ethiopian support). Meanwhile, the state of Somalia is divided into three parts - Puntland in the north, Al-Shabab in the center, and the federal government in the south. Puntland and the Shabab-controlled territories are havens for piracy and terrorism, while the government territories, and Mogadishu in particular, are terribly poor and underdeveloped. The three parts have an uneasy truce which has been maintained (with the exception of occasional clashes and shelling) since 2024.
January 1st, 2030: In one of the most remarkable sights of the 21st century, the AIDS Vaccine Distribution Project begins. Across the world, 629,374 health workers from 139 countries begin giving shots of the AIDS vaccine, which has been under intensive production for nearly a year. In every American city, African town, Indian village, Chinese hamlet, and European borough, people line up to get their shots. By the end of the day, an estimated 76 million people have been inoculated at over 30,000 locations worldwide. The Project, as it is known, will run for at least another 4 years, and aims to give the vaccine to over 2 billion people by the year's end.
As required by the Government Standardization and Clear Communications Act of 2027, the United States federal government officially uses metric units for all publications and government business. Imperial units are recommended but not required. Thirty-two states already have similar measures in place for their governments.
February 2nd, 2030: The President of Brazil announces the creation of a national Task Force on Drug Prevention, which will aim to tackle Brazil's drug problem through two different venues; law enforcement and the drug consumer culture among Brazil's youth. The drug problem has grown in parallel with growing corruption in the police force, which now often turns a blind eye to smuggling and does not dare enter some parts of neighborhoods in urban areas.
February 7th, 2030: The Mexican Congress narrowly votes in favor to amend Articles 51, 56 and 83 of the Mexican Constitution, namely abolishing the “no re-elections” rule for elected officials at the federal level. This comes after the same motion failed to pass in 2025 and 2027. Co-sponsor Hiram Romney tells the press he is “cautious but excited” as the amendment moves on to be voted on my the various state legislatures.
February 9th, 2030: The XXVI Winter Olympiad opens in Astana, Kazakhstan; Almaty acts as co-host.
February 15th, 2030: The main rebel group in Chad, former junta leader General Japhet Malloum, seizes the town of Sarh, in the south of the country. Malloum's Patriotic Salvation Movement has been in rebellion since they were ousted in 2029 by the Chadian Democratic Front.
February 20th-23rd, 2030: Second Battle of Sarh: Chadian forces under the banner of the Chadian Democratic Front engage and decisively defeat rebel MPS forces in the town of Sarh. The leader of the MPS (Patriotic Salvation Movement), General Japhet Malloum, is killed, and the group is disbanded.
March 11th, 2030: The assassination of Princess Leonor of Spain’s grandparents, 91 year old King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia after the state funeral of King George VII in London was especially traumatic for the 24 year old heir to the Spanish throne. After the ascension of her father to the Spanish throne as King Felipe VI, it was decided that the princess should go on a state visit to Brazil. While attending a reception in Rio de Janeiro, the princess meets Joshua Arantes do Nascimento (b. 1996) the son of Brazilian soccer legend Pele and is instantly attracted to him.
March 16th, 2030: Princess Leonor escapes from her protection detail and goes into hiding with Joshua Arantes do Nascimento causing an international cause celebre and seriously straining relations between Spain and Brazil.
April 2nd, 2030: Princess Leonor resurfaces in Sao Paulo, Brazil and announces in a press conference that she has married Joshua Arantes do Nascimento and gives up the rights to the Spanish throne for herself and her descendents.
May 5th, 2030: HydroFuel Solutions is formed as a holding company for the majority stake the Carson family has in Carson Fuel Incorporated and soon also holds major stakes in a few other small time fuel cell station companies. HydroFuel Solutions begins to develop a monopoly on fuel cell stations in the United States.
May 8th, 2030: The small sultanate of Brunei signs a treaty with Malaysia, handing control of two Brunei-held Spratly Islands over to Malaysia in exchange for rare-earth mining contracts in Borneo's interior. The Bruneian company Jawatak announces it hopes to begin exports from Borneo within two years.
May 20th, 2030: Brazil and Turkey sign the Treaty of Tunis, cementing a growing friendship between the two rising powers. The treaty establishes a free-trade system as well as close military ties. Additionally, Brazilian and Turkish students will no longer have restrictions on study-abroad programs, and visas will not be required to travel between Brazil and Turkey.
June 8th, 2030: Prince Nikolai of Denmark marries Tanzanian native Nzinga Lowassa in Copenhagen in a ceremony that combined traditional Danish Lutheran elements with African wedding traditions.
June 10th, 2030: An ambush on an Indian Army convoy in Baramula District, Kashmir, kills 21 soldiers. The perpetrators, about 80 Kashmiri militants, sustain 2 casualties, and one of them, Hanif Ghaffour, is captured. Under interrogation (and suspected beatings) by the Indian Army, Ghaffour reveals that he and his comrades received training and weapons from a three Pakistani men whom they believed to be members of the Pakistani government. India's Prime Minister, Surjaa Chakravorty calls upon Pakistan to denounce the attack and cease support of terrorists in strong terms. General Zahiri refuses, stating that “as long as India's terrorist occupation of Kashmir continues, the people of Kashmir will continue to rise up against them.”
June 22th, 2030: In Hong Kong, 46-year-old former District Councilor Siu Leong-sing is sentenced to jail for 9 years after drafting the Declaration of Civil Liberties and Self-determination, which is co-signed by famous writer Marcus Aurelius Lo.
June 24th, 2030: Jeffory W. Clinton-Mezvinsky, graduates from the Albany Academy, and is chosen to represent his graduating class a Valedictorian. In attendance are Jeffory's parents, Chelsea and Marc, as well as his grandparents, Former President Bill Clinton, and Former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton. Jeffory will go on to study law and business at the University of Cambridge in the coming fall.
July 1st, 2030: India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka announce that they are creating a “supranational body” that will “facilitate trade and political cooperation” between themselves. The new body, called the Indian Ocean International Community (IOIC), will have broad powers to regulate agriculture and also removes almost all tariffs on trade between the involved nations. It also sets the long-term goal of introducing a single currency, the as-yet hypothetical “South Asian rupee.” Prime Minister Chakravorty says that “this announcement is an important step towards peace and democracy in the region”, pointedly not noting the absence of Pakistan from the group. Pakistan's General Zahiri denounces the move as “another act of blatant Indian aggression and irredentism”. China expresses it's worries more quietly, and steps up its presence in Myannmar and Tibet. It also decides to court Afghanistan.
June 11th, 2030: For his role in the Accords and the revitalised economy, Fraser's government is re-elected with an increased majority of 73.
July 5th, 2030: The twenty-fourth FIFA World Cup concludes in Australia. France wins the championship over Italy, 3-1. An estimated 775 million people watch the final.
July 7th, 2030: Former PAN Senator and Party President Luis Iñiguez is elected President of México by a healthy margin, the PRI still suffering from the Paredes years and the PRD's shaky damage control to the recession both contributing to the PAN's win. President-elect Iñiguez becomes the first PAN candidate to assume the presidency in 18 years and the third PAN President overall after Felipe Calderón.
July 8th, 2030: The high-speed rail link between Walvis Bay, Namibia, and Gaborone, Botswana is completed. The track, running more than 1,300 km, will allow trains to move between the two cities at more than 220 km/hr.
José Luis Iñiguez Gámez (PAN): 40.11% Ariel Gómez León (PRD): 36.82% Héctor Ramírez Puga (PRI): 23.07%
August 20th, 2030: The European Council meets in Rome for it's bi-annual meeting. Talks focusing on the creation of an integrated federation result in a walk-out of delegates from Poland and many Eastern European states, who refuse to give up further sovereignty to a Berlin-Paris-Rome axis. France, Germany, and Italy continue talks with the remaining member nations, drafting a tentative date of formal integration of consenting EU members by 2040 at the latest. Britain remains neutral in the potential schism of the EU.
August 24th, 2030: Australian Federal Election. Lena Heade of the Green Party is elected as the first prime minister of Aboriginal descent. The decisive victory of pro-republican parties in this election demonstrates the voters' willingness to separate from the crown, which is a priority this term.
September 1st, 2030: Former Méxican Deputy Carmen Arteaga, popular due to her progressive initiatives and the successes of her grassroots organization MREV, wins the Mayoral elections for her hometown of Chilpancingo, Guerrero.
September 2nd, 2030: Following years of preparation and hard work, America launches the Apollo Regenesis into space and lands it safely on the Moon, marking the first time an American has walked on the Moon in 55 years. Millions in America and around the world watch as astronaut Jake Sky sets foot on the Moon, saying famously, “Well, here we go again…”. The same day, President Marco Rubio gives a speech in which he says,“Today's achievements remind us that despite our ever changing world, in America, anything is still possible.” Soon after, talks begin of America developing a permanent base on the Moon, though China already has a head start on the matter. China, in response to the days events, promises that they will be the first nation to reach Mars, marking the growing tension in the second space race. In addition to America and China, India, Japan, Russia and Europe all announce ambitions to go to the Moon and onto Mars.
September 9th, 2030: The Central Canadian Speed Railway, or CCSR, is open for the public to use, with the first train leaving from Hamilton at 9:00 AM. The railway runs all the way to Quebec City, and includes stops in such cities as Toronto, Oshawa, Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal, as well as others. Elsewhere, the rest of the country looks on with curiosity, and tentative plans are drawn up for high speed railway systems elsewhere in the country.
October 12th, 2030: Thirteen-year-old Prince Johan of Sweden begins treatment after his worried parents notice signs of violent psychosis such as his taking pleasure in the torture and death of small animals. He also enjoys reading true crime novels which describe old cases in gruesome detail.
October 18th, 2030: In baseball, the Las Vegas Gamblers win the World Series.
November 5th, 2030: U.S. Midterm Elections; despite the ongoing recession, the Republican Party manages to increase their congressional majorities. This is due to the ongoing schism in the Democratic Party between progressives and moderate-conservatives. Some moderate-conservative incumbents who had been defeated by liberal primary challengers managed to get re-elected as “Independent Democrats”.
House of Representatives Republican: 231 seats (+5) Democratic: 186 seats (-25) Independent Democratic: 20 seats (+20)
Senate Republican: 52 seats (+1) Democratic: 42 seats (-7) Independent Democratic: 6 seats (+6)
November 6th, 2030: Eight years after the end of The Daily Show, Station Prime launches their own website, with its main show being a political satire show in a similar style.
November 9th, 2030: The Philadelphia Union win the Major League Soccer Cup over the New York Red Bulls, 1-0.
November 29th, 2030: Leonor Borbon y Ortiz, former Infanta of Spain gives birth to a son, Edson Arantes do Nascimento III. King Felipe and Queen Letizia are deeply hurt by the circumstances of their daughter’s marriage but finally reconcile in early 2031. Leonor gives birth to six more sons and one daughter and raises them in Brazil out of the limelight.
December 1st, 2030: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito announces that he has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, and will retire from the Court as soon as possible. President Rubio wishes the ailing jurist well, and begins to search for a successor.
December 12th, 2030: President Rubio announces that his choice to replace Justice Alito is Lilah Parvani, a conservative judge from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (based in New Orleans). If confirmed, Judge Parvani will be the first member of a non-Abrahamic religion (Hinduism) to sit on the Court. Several Republican Senators announce their unease about her positions on religious education and abortion, despite her well-established conservative credentials.